Uzumaki and Otsutsuki- A Shift in Tides
by Deiru Tamashi
Summary: On the night that the Kyuubi is sealed into Naruto and his twin sister, the spirit of Kaguya Otsutsuki is sealed into the abandoned son of Orochimaru. With these three youths all living in Konoha, how will the Elemental Nations be affected as a whole? Small Naruharem, small OCxHarem, rated M for violence and explicit material. Please review!
1. Prologue: A Changed History

Author's Note: I do not own Naruto or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.

Hey! This is Deiru Tamashi, the all-mighty Soul of the Valley. I decided to write this fc because of my love for Naruto and my fascination from the series. As I read through _many_ other fics and the cannon universe I thought of many things that I thought would be awesome of they happened, and so I eventually decided to write this fic to create a Naruto universe where the things _I_ wanted to happen (along with input from my readers) actually happen. And so, I give this fic to you all. Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Uzumaki and Otsutsuki- A Shift in the Tides<strong>

Prologue: A Changed History

_In ages past, before mankind could even use chakra, there existed a time of endless wars. Countless factions and groups of humans fought each other. It mattered not if it was for land, wealth, men, women, love- whenever two sides met, blood was spilled. Those who did not fight wished for it to end. As the wars continued so too did famine, disease and death. From the blood of the deceased rose a massive tree of god-like proportions. This tree was worshipped as if it _was_ a god, and aptly named the Shinju. Every one thousand years this tree would bear a single fruit, known as the Chakra Fruit. The consumption of this fruit was regarded as the highest taboo, and declared expressly forbidden. However, a time went on and the wars perpetuated, one clan sought to change that._

_The Otsutsuki Clan was a clan of being that came from another land, distinguished by their pale gray skin and horn-like appendages. The leader of this clan, Kaguya Otsutsuki, saw the world as a nursery, and wished more than anything to protect it. This desire drove her to break the taboo and pluck the Chakra Fruit from the Shinju tree, eating it. The moment Kaguya consumed the Chakra Fruit she became the first human to use chakra, and her power was beyond anything that the world had bared witness to before. The very elements themselves bowed to her command, and Kaguya's power enabled her to finally bring an end to the era of wars. The people heralded her as the world's savior and likened her to a goddess, giving the name "Rabbit Goddess" due to her horns. _

_After ending the wars Kaguya and the rest of the Otsutsuki Clan settled down amongst humans, and Kaguya came to bear two sons, Hagoromo and Hamura. However, as time went on Kaguya's power corrupted her, and she became distrustful of mankind, believing that it was only a matter of time before the world descended into war again. To prevent this from happening Kaguya planned to enact the Infinite Tsukuyomi, an unbreakable genjutsu that world trap it's victims in a never-ending dream world based off of their desires. The people's feelings of Kaguya changed to fear from this, and she was given the new name "Demon". Kaguya soon found out, in her efforts, that her two sons had also inherited her chakra. _

_In a fit of rage and jealousy, believing that all chakra belonged to her and her alone, Kaguya merged her body and essence with that if the Shinju tree, becoming a massive beast known as the Ten-Tails. Once the merge was complete, Kaguya proceeded to go on a rampage, destroying everything in her path with her power. Hagoromo and Hamura, now adults, stood against their transformed mother, and faced her ten-tailed form in combat. The two were able to overcome her by utilizing a technique known as the Chibaku Tensei, or Catastrophic Planetary Devastation. Using this, Kaguya was sealed within what would become the moon, which was then propelled into space. This act, along with the sharing of chakra with other humans, would cause Hagoromo to become known as the Sage of Six Paths, while Hamura and the rest of the Otsutsuki Clan moved to the moon to watch over Kaguya's sealed remains._

_What they did not know was that, at the exact moment of her sealing, Kaguya managed to cause her will to manifest into a living being known as Black Zetsu, which would work toward the goal of reviving its creator. But that's not all. Using her immense power, she managed to also remove her own soul from her body and eject it as well, leaving her body and power behind to be sealed away. With her soul now free from her body ad power, Kaguya wandered as she watched her son take her power and, near his death, split it into the nine tailed beasts. Still retaining but a handful of her former abilities, Kaguya planned to find a way to absorb the chakra of each tailed beasts and regain her lost body and power, be it through her soul or the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path._

_Eons pass._

_As time passed by mankind, just as Kaguya feared, entered an age of wars once again. This time though, the wars were even more destructive with the power of chakra. Amongst these warring sides were two clans descended from Hagoromo- the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan. These two clans were eventually able to form a truce, their leaders Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju able to become friends. Together, the two clans were able to form the first ninja village- Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. However, even then Madara's ideals of peace differed from Hashirama's- while Hashirama wanted to maintain a lack of fighting between the fledgling hidden villages, Madara wished for control so that peace could not be lost, similar to Kaguya's desires. _

_Madara's suspicions grew as the people declared Hashirama the first Hokage, fearing for the Uchiha Clan's prosperity. He soon left the village, and in his absence Hashirama used the power of his Wood Release to gain control of the nine tailed beasts. Rather than use them to attain dominance over the Elemental Nations, Hashirama instead gave a tailed beast to several villages to equalize power between them. Both of the strongest tailed beasts though, the Kyuubi and the Hachibi, were kept in Konoha. A pair of clans from the village would volunteer to become the "guardians" of the beasts, with a new jinchuuriki being chosen whenever the latest clan heir would be born. The Senju clan became the guardians of the Kyuubi, but with Madara's desertion the public became distrustful of the Uchiha, and bid that they _not_ become the guardians of the Hachibi._

_Hashirama reluctantly agreed, and so the task of guarding the Hachibi would be given to the third oldest clan in Konoha- the Hyuuga. Soon after Madara returned, having used his Sharingan to gain control over the Kyuubi. He and Hashirama fought one more time at the Valley of the End, and in this fight Hashirama regained control of the Kyuubi, and his wife Mito Uzumaki sealed the beast within herself, becoming its jinchuuriki. One week after the fight Madara returned in secret, planning to, even if he lost the fight, get back at Hashirama in one more way. Using a henge to disguise himself as the Hokage and placing Mito under a Sharingan-based genjutsu, Madara slept his Mito and impregnated her._

_The children of this union would possess both the Sharingan of the Uchiha and the large reserves and lifespan of the Uzumaki. However, none of Mito and Madara's descendants ever activated the Sharingan, thus preserving the secret. One of Mito's children, Daisuke Uzumaki, moved back to the Uzumaki homeland, Uzushiogakure, to become acquainted with the clan's legacy. However, the Third Great Shinobi War began soon after, preventing Daisuke from leaving the island without being hunted down. And so he was forced to remain in Uzu, where he eventually had a child- Kushina Uzumaki. During the course of the war Uzushiogakure was targeted for its mastery of fuinjutsu. Kushina was but a few of the remaining survivors, and brought to Konoha for her safety, as well as becoming the second jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi._

_While neither Mito nor Kushina knew of their relation to one another, Mito still comforted Kushina and helped her accept her fate as a jinchuuriki. The Kyuubi was eventually transferred to its new host, the process of which also awakened Kushina's Sharingan. After being saved from capture from a group of Kumo ninja, Kushina also fell in love with Minato Namikaze, a man who would become the Yondaime Hokage. Soon, the two became expecting parents- to twins none the less- and the expected date of birth was to be October 10__th__. However, they were not the only ones expecting._

_The Snake Sannin Orochimaru, nine months prior, had been traveling in Fire Country, furious of the loss of another of his experimental labs at the hands of Konoha. As he was passing through a small town an unnamed woman approached and tried to comfort him. Now with an outlet for his rage, Orochimaru forcefully slept with the woman, with no henge of genjutsu to keep the woman complacent. The child of this union would possess the Kekkei Genkai of the Hebi Clan, from which Orochimaru came- the Poison Release. Ashamed of being raped and resenting the child in her womb, the woman gave birth to the child in the Valley of the End and immediately abandoning it, returning home. The child's date of birth: October 10__th__. _

_It was on that night that our story begins._

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><p>Okay, that was the prologue, and I hope you all enjoyed it. So let's see- what have we got? The spirit of Kaguya outside of the moon and wandering about? Check. Kushina being the descendant of Mito and Madara? Check. Konoha keeping the Hachibi and Hyuuga plan possessing it? (I think you can see where this is going). Check. Orochimaru having a kid, Kushina having twins, and all three children born on the same day? Check, check and check.<p>

Yeah! That's pretty much it. The real story will start next chapter, so stay tuned for then. If you have any suggestions as to what to have occur or would like me to do something, do not hesitate to tell me. I am very open to ideas as of now.

Please review! If you flame me Liam Neeson will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you. (I'm just kidding… or am I?)


	2. Chapter 1: Birth and Sealing

Author's Note: I do not own Naruto or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Hey! It's me again, Deiru Tamashi. I thank you for the reviews posted along with the reads, and have posted replies to them for you. <strong>

**Enlace: The child of Orochimaru will be male, sorry. But i thank you for the kind words, and hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Pyrojack25: That was my goal.**

**And now, let the first real chapter begin!**

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><p>Ch.1 Birth and Sealing<p>

_Konohagakure No Sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves_

Normally, when one hears that name, it inspires various emotions. From blinding hatred (Iwa) to jealousy over its various bloodlines and clans (Kumo) to a desire to simply raze it to the ground and reanimate it's dead for one's own purposes (a certain snake pedophile). Right now though, there was a different emotion than that being felt by on person. That person was Kushina Uzumaki who, at that very moment, was cursing its village's leader, the Yondaime Hokage, to the deepest circles of hell and the devil's wrathful embrace.

"Come on, Kushina, we're almost there! Push!" Minato urged his wife.

"MINATO, SHUT THE FUCK UP! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, DATTEBAYO!" the redhead yelled back. Currently, one of the last remaining Uzumaki was in the process of giving birth. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem. But when you're a female jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi no Kitsune, your Uzumaki healing gets rid of any stretches in your wall while giving birth and you're giving birth to twins on top of that… Well, Kami just had a fetish for screwing people over. Luckily both Jiraiya and Tsunade were in the cave that Kushina's birthing process was occurring in, Jiraiya to assist in keeping the seal maintain since birthing twins doubled the danger of it breaking, and Tsunade to help her former genin student make it through the ordeal. Minato frowned at his wife's yelling.

"Um, it takes two to make a child, koi," he said. Kushina's response was to send a fist flying at his face. Minato in turn substituted himself with the closest thing to him… which was Jiraiya. The perverted sage's eyes widened just before he was sent through the air and into the cave wall so hard he made a hole in it, his feet sticking into the air on the other side. Why in the world did Kushina have to learn her teacher's super-strength? Minato sweat-dropped at the sight, and thought '_Sorry sensei, but better you than me._' Turning back to the matter at hand, Minato reaffirmed his grip on Kushina's hand, which was slowly being crushed. "Almost there, Kushina. I can see the head!" Tsunade encouraged.

"FUCKING SHIT!" Kushina screamed. A few more pushes and the cave was filled with sounds crying. In her hands Tsunade held a young baby boy. "Scalpel!" she ordered, and Jiraiya quickly handed her one. Cutting the umbilical cord, Tsunade quickly cleaned the baby before handing it to Jiraiya and turning back to Kushina. "Now, just one more. Don't let up now!" she said. A short time later Kushina's other child, a girl, was born and quickly wrapped in a red blanket, while the boys was blue. "Here," she said, handing Minato and Kushina their children. Minato held their daughter while Kushina held their son. The girl had the same vibrant red hair as her mother with the same face as Minato, while the boy had Minato's hair and Kushina's face.

"Congratulations, you two are officially parents," Tsunade said proudly. Both of them smiled widely at that, albeit rather tiredly in Kushina's case. "Well, congratulations, gaki. So, what you going to name them?" Jiraiya asked, picking himself up back out of the hole and dusting himself off, black eye miraculously healed. "Well, we already knew we're going to name our son Naruto. But as for our daughter, we decided to wait until we saw her face. So…" Minato said, looking down at his daughter. "Minato, I'm thinking Natsumi," Kushina said, looking up. The Yondaime Hokage was silent for a moment, before smiling widely. "Natsumi… it means summer. I like it. Natsumi it is" he said. Everyone in attendance smiled. There had been many a chance that something could have gone wrong, but it least it hadn't…

"How touching." Or it had.

As one they all looked to the entrance of the cave, seeing a figure there. It appeared to be a man, if its voice had been any indication, dressed in a black cloak and wearing an orange spiral mask with a single eye-hole. Instantly they were all on guard. "Who are you? How did you find this place?" Jiraiya demanded. The figure chuckled. "My name… is Madara Uchiha. I'm here for the jinchuuriki," he said. All of their eyes widened momentarily. Madara Uchiha? How the hell could he still be alive? Then the other have of his response process, and both Jiraiya and Tsunade entered fighting stances while Minato handed Natsumi to Kushina before doing the same.

"You aren't getting Kushina," Tsunade said firmly. Even though it was covered, they could tell 'Madara' raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" he asked, before launching forward. Tsunade channeled chakra into her fist and unleashed a devastating right hook that would have pulverized the skulls of several man from the pure force of it… and passed right through. Tsunade blinked. "Huh?" she said. Jiraiya was shocked as well, and that momentary pause was enough for 'Madara' to connect with his own right hook, hitting right in the jaw and sending him several feet into the air. But then Minato appeared in front of him, Rasengan in each hand, and yelled "Take this!" He swung both spheres at 'Madara' only for them to pass right through as well.

'Madara' dashed at Kushina, who willed several chakra chains to emerge from her lower back at lash forward. He skillfully dodged them all and snatched the infant Naruto right from her arms, drawing a kunai and holding it to the baby's neck. "Stop," he commanded. Seeing the kunai the others did, even while Kushina called "Naruto!" Beneath his mask 'Madara' smiled. "As I said before, I'm here for the jinchuuriki. I gain nothing from harming this child. But that doesn't mean I won't," he warned, bringing the knife an inch closer. "Stop!" Minato said, holding up his hands. "Okay, just calm down. We can work this out," he said. 'Madara' chuckled. "I am perfectly calm, Namikaze, and there is nothing to dicuss. Hand over the jinchuuriki, or this child dies the night it was born," he ordered.

When there was no response he grunted and raised the kunai, and Kushina called "Wait!" 'Madara' paused, and Kushina hung her head, her hair covering her eyes. "Minato, take Natsumi," she said. "Kushi-chan, you can't-" Minato began, before she looked at him with violet eyes that would have scared the Kyuubi itself stiff. "Take Natsumi, Minato," she said. A tear fell from Minato's eyes as he slowly nodded, and the present Sannin gritted their teeth in frustration. They wanted to do something, but they couldn't. With Naruto in hand, 'Madara' ad them by the balls. Minato slowly approached Kushina, the masked man watching all the while, and slowly took his daughter out of her arms. "I'll come back for you, Kushi-koi," he whispered.

Kushina nodded and let her daughter be taken, before walking forward. 'Madara' put away the kunai and placed a hand on her shoulder, saying "You might a wise choice, Namikaze. Here!" With that he tossed Naruto into the air, vanishing in a strange swirl with Kushina an instant later. "Naruto!" the other three all yelled, and Minato channeled chakra to his feet and leaped into the air, catching his son before throwing away the blanket, which was covered in explosive tags. While the blanket exploded the Yondaime landed on his feet, turning to Jiraiya and Tsunade. "Go after that son of a bitch. Anyone who threatens my family dies," he said, his voice as cold as an angry Yuki clan member's. Both Sannin shuddered; Kushina had definitely rubbed off on him.

Nonetheless, they both nodded and sprinted out of the cave, while Minato vanished in a flash of yellow. He reappeared inside the Uzumaki-Namikaze estate, Naruto and Natsumi's room to be precise, and placed his newborn son and daughter in his cradle. "Just hold on, Naruto, Natsumi. I'll go get your kaa-chan back," he promised. As one both children open their eyes, shocking him. Natusmi's eyes were the same crystal blue as his, while Naruto had the same shade of violet eyes as is mother. He smiled before patting them both gently on the head and disappeared in another flash.

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><p>'Madara' smirked as he gazed upon the bound Kushina, whose arms and legs were wrapped with Kushina to prevent her from struggling. A simple paralysis seal was also keeping her from manifesting her chakra chains and activating the Sharingan she'd inherited. "What… do you want?" Kushina asked. The masked man chuckled. "Simple. I came to extract the Kyuubi from your body and use it to crush Konoha," he said. Kushina gasped, but he ignored her and looked at the seal on her stomach. "I see that Minato incorporated his Hiraishin seal into the design. All so he could protect you, but I managed to separate you. And the seal itself has been weakened… Do you have any idea how long I've waited for this?" 'Madara' said, his own Sharingan activated. He looked <em>into<em> the seal and locked gazes with the fox, whose eyes widened. "**You!**" she yelled, before the tomoe of 'Madara's' eyes spun and a similar set appeared on the Kyuubi's before the pupils grew wide.

The Kyuubi roared ferally as the seal finally broke apart, and 'Madara' called "Come froth, Kyuubi no Kitsune!" "**RAAAAAH!**" the fox bellowed, before a spectral version of herself burst from the seal, rising into the air. Kushina's expression was set in a silent scream of agony, barely managing to stay alive. The spectral fox slowly took substance, and the newly-released and newly-controlled Kyuubi roared to the heavens. "Now, we head for the Leaf," 'Madara' said turning around. "W-Wait…" Kushina said weakly. 'Madara' chuckled. "You Uzumaki are impressive. Giving birth to _two_ children and having your tailed beast extracted immediately afterwards, yet you still live. But not for long," he said, nodding at the Kyuubi.

The Bijuu tried to struggle against the genjutsu, but when Madara locked eyes again and reinforced his hold, she had no choice but to roar and swing forward. At that very moment though, there was a flash of Yellow and Minato appeared, grabbing his wife and jumping away. "Hmph. Quick as a flash. But it's too late," 'Madara' said, before turning away. "Kushina, thank Kami that I made it," Minato said, holding her closer. "Minato… Are Naruto… and Natsumi okay?" she asked. He nodded. "Yes, they're fine. Naruto has your eyes, by the way," he said, smiling. Kushina's eyes widened before she smiled. "Take me to them, please," she said. The Yondaime nodded and activated the Hiraishin again, warping to the children's room.

Helping his wife to stand, Kushina immediately reached forward and picked up both of her children, holding them close. "Naruto, Natsumi. It's okay; Kaa-chan is here now. I won't let you be taken away ever again," she said firmly, holding them tightly. Minato smiled at the sight, before his smile faded. "Kushina…" he began, his tone grim. The redhead looked over at him, her smile fading as well at his expression. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Now that the Kyuubi is free, we know that it will have to be sealed again. And you're too weak right now to survive the process," he said. Kushina frowned. She knew that she couldn't be able to survive having Akane sealed into her a second time, but if so, then who would be the new jinchuuriki?

"What are you saying, Mina-kun?" she asked. Minato grimaced. "If a new jinchuuriki has to be chosen, then it has to be a newborn, one whose chakra coils haven't had the time to develop," he said. Kushina was still confused, until it clicked and her eyes grew huge. "NO!" she yelled, backing up and holding Naruto and Natsumi closer to her. She mustered enough chakra to activate her Mangekyo Sharingan, which took the form of nine-bladed fuma shuriken with the Uzumaki swirl in the center. In response to her voice they opened their eyes, curious as to what was going on. "Kushina, there's no other choice. There aren't any other in-" Minato began, before he was cut off. "I don't care! I know the pain of being a jinchuuriki, and you're not going to subject either of our children to that kind of life!" she said fiercely.

"Kushi-chan, I wish it were any other way. But it's not. As of this moment, the village's only hope is our children," he said sadly. Kushina still shook her head stubbornly, and Naruto and Natsumi began to cry. In response Kushina began shaking them up and down, shushing and cooing at them with promises that their mother was there. Once they calmed down Minato stepped forward, and looked her in the eye. "Kushina, it'll be okay. I'll have to use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal- you know what that means- but Jiraiya, Tsunade and old man Sarutobi will still be here to help keep them safe. And then there's you, the strongest and fiercest kunoichi I've ever met," he reminded her. Kushina smiled slightly at that, knowing that there will be people to protect her twins.

Then her smiled faded, and she looked her husband. "… And there's no other way?" she asked. Minato shook his head. "No, there isn't. The Kyuubi is too large to seal into one infant, so I'll have to seal the Yin and Yang halves into Natsumi and Naruto respectively," he told. Kushina hung her head. Not only was her husband going to sacrifice himself, but both of her newborn twins would be subjugated to the isolation and hatred of those who think jinchuuriki are their tailed beasts. But if this wasn't done, Konoha would face definite destruction. Kushina thought of her fellow comrades, along with her own genin team. "_Anko, Kurenai, Yugao…_" she thought.

Eventually Kushina nodded and deactivated her Sharingan. "Alright. I'm coming with you though," she said. Minato nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder, both of them flashing away.

**Several miles away, at the Valley of the End**

A young woman with black hair and brown eyes gave one more scream as she birthed a child. Quickly she took a scalpel and cut the umbilical cord before placing the child on the ground and standing and redressing. She looked down at the newborn infant with anger. It had pale skin and opened its eyes, which revealed to be a dark red in color. The woman gritted her teeth. That pale skin reminded her of that…_monster_... that had raped her nine months ago. All she wanted to do was help the strange ninja, the one with features like a snake, when he looked angry, and now _this_ is what she got. The woman finished dressing and walked away, leaving the child on the ground in the middle of the valley. She would not have that abomination created by her rape around with it. The wolves could take care of it, as far as she was concerned.

**Back in Konoha…**

Minato and Kushina reappeared on top of Minato's head on the Hokage Monument, looking outwards. The Kyuubi was already there, and on rampage. Small explosions occurred around her feet from explosive tags, but that didn't even make her blink. Kushina gazed at the fox worriedly. How could things have gotten this far? She and Akane had made peace. If it wasn't for that man claiming to be Madara Uchiha, she knew the fox would never do this. As it was, the possessed Bijuu noticed them despite the vast distance, and roared before opening her mouth wide. Black and white chakra combined into a single massive sphere before the Kyuubi swallowed it, and after a second spat it back out. It shot forward towards them at twice the size, but Minato said "Not on my watch!"

Flashing through hand seals and holding up a Hiraishin kunai, a giant sealing matrix appeared and blocked the Tailed Beast Ball, slowly absorbing it until it vanished. Half a mile away from Konoha there was a massive explosion, the attack having been transported away. Seeing what could only have been a Space-Time Technique, the shinobi fighting quickly began fighting with renewed vigor, knowing that the Yondaime had arrived. Minato frowned. "Before I seal the fox, I have let Sarutobi know what's happened," he said. But then he heard Kushina called "Minato!" and turned to see her leap aside from the masked figure, who had appeared behind them.

Without thinking he rushed forward and slashed at 'Madara' only to have his attack phase through. An instant later he solidified. "You won't be sealing anything, Minato," he said. All of a sudden the air itself began swirling around Minato and the masked man, drawing him towards his eye. But then the ground around 'Madara' burst open from several golden chains, all of which shot towards 'Madara'. He dodged them and Minato rushed forward, slamming a contract seal onto 'Madara's' chest before he could make himself transparent. His visible eye widened. "Are you trying to wrest control of the Kyuubi from me?" he asked. Minato smiled. "No, it's already done. The Kyuubi is no longer yours to control!" he said.

At that very moment the Kyuubi blinked, her pupils shrinking and turning back to slits and tomoe disappearing. "_**What in the world…?**_" she thought, before it all came back. The masked Uchiha forcing her out of the Kushina-chan, controlling her mind, and then setting her on the village. At that her blood boiled. There was only one Uchiha that had ever managed to take control of her. "**MADARA!**" she roared, tensing to spring forward. But then some random shinobi threw another volley of explosive tags at her, catching her halfway up her leg. She looked down at the shinobi and let out a burst of Killing Intent, causing every ninja within a hundred feet of her to instantly faint. With that taken care of she prepared again to jump towards the Madara and both get rid of him and help Kushina-chan.

But then her path was blocked once again, this time by some sort of giant staff. She looked to see the old mad that Kushina had spoken with- she reminded his last name meant "flying monkey"- was the one holding the staff. "This is as far as you go, Kyuubi!" There was also a large burst of smoke as a giant toad appeared with another man, this one with white hair, standing on top of it. In a similar burst an equally large slug appeared, a blonde woman atop it The Kyuubi growled at him and let out another blast of Killing Intent, again fainting every shinobi in a hundred feet. Sadly, two men and the woman were able to weather it, and swung monkey-man swung his staff again. The two and man unleashed a wave of fire while the slug sprayed acid at her.

She easily blocked the staff with one of her tails, and roared loudly enough to send out a shockwave. The shockwave sent both the flames and oil away. The Kyuubi began gathering chakra for a much smaller version of her Tailed Beast Ball that would incapacitate all of these pesky ningen, but not destroy the village. Kushina had at least gotten her to promise not to do _that_.

**Near the back of the shinobi force-**

Another shinobi feel to the ground, screaming in pain from the imaginary slashes across his back. Behind him was, to the naked eye, nothing but air. But if one had the ability to see chakra or spirits, they would have seen an adult woman grinning while lowering her claws. The woman was fairly tall and possessed pale gray skin, with ankle-length silver hair, white eyes and a pair of horn-like appendages. Her eyes brows were cut short and her lips were covered in black lipstick, the same color as her clawed nails. There was a third eyelid on her forehead that, when open, would part vertically. She wore a transitional purple kimono of royalty adorned with intricate line, a column of tomoe on the front and additional tomoe along the edges of her sleeves. The spirit woman was Kaguya Otsutsuki, princess and head of the Otsutsuki Clan and progenitor of chakra.

Kaguya chuckled as she swung her claws at another shinobi that couldn't see her, catching him on the side and having his wail in agony from nonexistent burns. Just because she had been separated from the Juubi, or Ten-Tails, didn't mean that she didn't have the power to perform some acts. And as much as she resented the fact these ningen had taken chakra and weaponized it- she _knew_ that was going to happen- Kaguya could at least admire the prowess of what they called "genjutsu". She glided towards a third shinobi, grabbed her neck and attempted to snap it. Although she failed, the genjutsu inflicted did instantly knock the woman out and have her drop to heap on the ground. Hearing a roar and a spike in chakra, Kaguya looked up to see the Kyuubi charging a small Tailed Beast Ball.

The spirit grinned again at that. She still retained the power to absorb chakra, and if he could get close enough she could begin drawing the Kyuubi's chakra, _her_ chakra, back into her body. Then she would at least have enough power to manifest herself in physical form, and called Zetsu back to her side. With the all of knowledge it would have acquired, Kaguya begin searching for the other Bijuu to absorb and reclaim. Once she had done that, she would be back at full power and able to continue her dream of eternal peace in the world. And this time, he damnable son Hagoromo and Hamura wouldn't be there to stop her. Then she felt the Tailed Beast Ball disappear and looked up again, seeing that the Kyuubi was staring at something near its feet.

Frowning, Kaguya began drifting forward, cutting down any shinobi that got in the way.

**At the Hokage Monument-**

The masked man backed away from Minato and Kushina. "You deserve the title of Yondaime Hokage. Managing to engage me in combat, and even freeing the Kyuubi from my control… Someday though, it will be mine. The fox and this world will bow to me. There are many way to make that happen," he declared, before vanishing in a swirl. Kushina stared at where he had ben, holding Naruto and Natsumi close. "Something tells me he wasn't lying," she commented. Minato nodded in agreement, before turning back to the village. "We can worry about him later though. First, the Kyuubi," he said. Kushina nodded sadly, and Minato placed hand on their shoulder before flashing towards the Kyuubi, appearing fifty feet in front of her.

Recognizing the flash and Kushina's scent, the Kyuubi dissipated her attack and paused. "It's Yondaime-sama! We can finish this now!" a random shinobi called. Minato help up his hand. "Stop! Hold your fire!" he ordered. Confused, the shinobi and others did as said, while Minato turned to his wife. "Kushina, can you talk to it?" he asked. Kushina nodded, and gazed up at the massive Bijuu. "_Akane?_" she thought. The Kyuubi stared down at her, while in her head she heard a voice speak. "**Kushina? Are you alright? Where did Madara go? I can't detect his scent anymore**," the fox asked. Kushina smiled. "_He's gone; he left once he lost control of you. I'm fine, by the way, and so is Minato_," she replied. The fox snorted. "**Well, I could honestly care less about him. The reason I put up with that blondie is because he's your mate**," the Kyuubi stated.

Kushina frowned, not sure whether to be embarrassed or annoyed. But then her expression turned serious. "_Akane, now that you're free I would love to just let you leave. But as much as I want to, the rest of the village won't see it that way_," she said. The Kyuubi sighed. "**I figured as much. So what now? I'm guessing those two kits in your arms are yours. Are they going to be my new jinchuuriki?**" the Bijuu asked. Kushina hung her head. "_Yes. I'm sorry_," she said. The fox sighed again. "**Very well, then. But at least get your idiot mate to flash us somewhere private. I'd like my last few moment of fresh air to not be stifled by a bunch of ningen**," she said. Kushina nodded, and turned to Minato. "She's okay with it. Just take us somewhere else." Minato nodded and flashed through hand seals, activating the Hiraishin once more and taking them back to the cave where Kushina had given birth.

"Kushina. I know you don't have much chakra left, but can you put up a barrier?" Minato asked. Kushina nodded and called "Adamantine Sealing Chains!" A set of five chains burst from her lower back and shot into the ground, emerging and wrapping around in a dome that contained her, Minato and the Kyuubi. Nodding his head, Minato flashed through another set of hand seals. A large ceremonial throne appeared, and Kushina gently placed Naruto and Natsumi on it. Once that was done, Minato called "Dead Demon Consuming Seal!" With a burst of light the spectral of Shinigami, the God of Death, appeared behind him. With it came an aura of death and sadness, its oni mask exuding pure misery and regret. "**Ningen, why have you summoned me?**" the god asked in a booming voice. "Shinigami-sama, I ask you to seal the Yin and Yang halves of Kyuubi within these two children," Minato pleaded.

Behind the mask it wore, the Shinigami raised an eyebrow. "**You are aware that such a request will cost you your life?**" it asked. Minato nodded. "Yes. Please do it," he said. The Shinigami stared at him for moment before nodding and turning back to the fox. Knowing that the moment was here, the Kyuubi lowered her head and closed her eyes. Outside of the barrier, Hiruzen, Jiraiya and Tsunade appeared, but could do nothing to break through. "Dammit. I recognize those marks. The gaki's using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal!" Jiraiya cursed. Tsunade narrowed her eyes and tried to punch a hole through the barrier, but not even her super strength could make a dent. Inside the barrier, the Shinigami releases its sword from its teeth and caught it.

Without another word it swung forward, unleashing an arc of power that flew forward and hit the Kyuubi right down the middle. It roared in pain before separating into two separate smaller foxes, one with fur that was pure white while the other was solid black. Putting away its sword, the Death God reached forward and grasped both halves of the Kyuubi both the throat, pulling them towards Naruto and Natsumi. With a grunt it shoved the Yin half into Natsumi and the Yang half into Naruto, the Eight Trigrams Seal appearing on both of their abdomens. The Shinigami prepared to turn to Minato, but then it sensed a spirit not too far away, one that had just barely escaped its grasp eons ago.

The Shinigami grinned. The fact that Kaguya had cheated death by removing her soul from her sealed body did set please the Death God. Sealing her away into these children would be a good way to teach her a lesson. Reaching out with its arm, the Shinigami willed a rope of its ten of its beads to shoot from its sleeves and fly forth through the air, heading towards Kaguya's position. Once they reached her the beads would wrap around Kaguya and move back towards these two children, sealing her in when she arrives. With that done the Death God turned around, gazing stoically at Minato. "**The time has come for your payment, ningen. Any last words to your wife or children?**" it asked.

Minato smiled and walked towards Naruto and Natsumi, looking down at them. "Naruto… Natsumi… I know things will get hard from here on out. Your mother had to deal with a lot of grief from being a jinchuuriki. But at least this way, you'll have both her and each other to help you through it. Don't let the fear and hatred get to you. Instead, let it convince you to grow stronger. Naruto, I want you to grow into a strong shinobi, and look out for your mother and sister while I'm not there. Natsumi, I want you to become a beautiful kunoichi," he said, his lips quirking upwards. "Maybe you can even give me a grandchild or two to look upon from inside Shinigami-sama's stomach," he added. When he said that Minato felt a small burst of KI, and looked to see Kushina standing there with fire in her eyes.

"Minato…" she began. Breaking into a sweat, he said "Um, just joking! But seriously, I want both of you to live happily with your mother, and become great examples of the Will of Fire." With that Minato leaned down and kissed each of his children on the forehead, eliciting a giggle from either twin. He smiled at the sound, and the turned into his wife. "Kushina-" he started, but then she cut him off by embracing her tightly. Her hugged her back just with just as much fierceness, and leaned close to her ear. "Kushina, I honestly wish it didn't have to leave. I don't _want_ to leave. I want to stay here, with you and the children. But I can't. So I want you to be as happy as I can once I'm gone. Can you do that for me?" he asked. Kushina nodded, tear flowing down her face and into his vest.

"Minato… I don't want you to go either. I know Naruto will be wanting to know what you were like, and Natsumi will be curious as well. I'll remember to tell them everything, as well as keep Jiraiya-sensei from influencing them. I'll give them enough love for the both of us," Kushina declared. He nodded and pulled back enough to give her a passionate kiss. They stayed together until only the need for air forced them to separate. Then Minato gave one her one last peck on the lips before letting go, and turning around. "Okay, Shinigami-sama. I'm ready," he said. The Shinigami nodded. "**Then to the afterlife we go,**" it said, reaching forward grasping Minato's soul, ripping it out before vanishing. The now lifeless body crumbled to the ground, and Kushina slowly walked forward before dropping to her knees.

Releasing the barrier, she placed Minato's head in her lap and stroked his hair while openly weeping. Minato Namikaze, her husband and the love of her life, was gone. With the barrier no longer holding them back, Jiraiya, Hiruzen and Tsunade all rushed forward. "Kushina!" Tsunade said. She looked up sadly. "So, you're all here," she said. Sarutobi nodded. "Yes, and we saw everything. Your children are the new jinchuuriki, I presume?" he asked. Kushina nodded. "Yes. I'll be raising them myself; they'll need a mother's affection," she said. Jiraiya nodded, before stepping closer and kneeling down. "Here, I've got Minato. You grab your kids," he said. Kushina nodded and let Jiraiya take Minato's body into his arms, while she picked up Naruto and Natsumi.

"Now, let's get back to the village. Since Minato named no successor to the throne, I'll re-take the position. It's the least I can do, and this way no one like Danzo can take it and try to either harm Naruto and Natsumi or turn them into weapons," Hiruzen said. Kushina nodded gratefully. "Thank you," she said. Not capable of resisting the chance, Jiraiya snickered and said "You know what that means, sensei?" Hiruzen raised his eyebrows and looked back, curious. Jiraiya smiled. "That means you'll be going back to the paperwork."

Sarutobi groaned.

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><p><strong>With Kaguya…<strong>

Kaguya hurried and flew faster through the air than she thought she could, almost panicking. She had sensed the presence of the Shinigami, and knew that if it was here then the Kyuubi was most likely being sealed away. "NO!" she yelled, moving faster. She had been wandering the Elemental Nations, looking for a time when the she could find an unsealed Bijuu and absorb it. She was not losing this chance now! But then she felt the presence of the Kyuubi actually split into two, and then vanish completely. Kaguya actually roared in rage. She was too late. At the very least though, she could kill whoever the fox was sealed into, and in just a matter of years it would re-appear for her to try again.

But then, as she entered a clearing, a long rope of ten black rosary beads burst from the foliage and shot towards Kaguya, wrapping around her. "What?!" she exclaimed, trying to struggle. But the beads wouldn't budge, and began moving back the way they came- towards the Kyuubi's previous location. Her eyes widened. The Shinigami must have sensed her- own its power could do this to her as a spirit- and now it was going to seal away her as well. "Never! I will never be sealed away again!" she called, struggling harder. But the beads were unmoving, despite her best efforts, and she could feel herself drawing closer.

Just as Kaguya was about to nearly sob from her failure, an idea appeared in her head. It might not work, but if it did… Kaguya grinned before channeling what she had of her chakra, and called "Amenominaka!" Her third eye opened and Kaguya was instantly warped away, every trace of her presence, including the Shinigami beads, vanishing.

Kaguya looked around at the mountainous region that made up her core dimension, smirking victoriously. Although the Shinigami beads were wrapped around her, she was no longer in the same dimension as the Kyuubi's new hosts and thus unable to be sealed within them. Or so she thought. Just as the progenitor of chakra began to reach for the beads to tear them off they began glowing, crackling with divine energy. She felt the same pull that she did when she entered another dimension, and the mountainous region around her turned grainy before resolving into a valley with two massive statues and a waterfalls. Not understanding what was going on, she looked around until Kaguya spotted an infant boy, this one with pale skin and red eyes that was yelling on the ground.

Instantly it set in. By using the Amenominaka, she had succeeded in escaping being bound to whoever the Kyuubi, which she was now guessing had been an infant. But in doing so the sealing effect was still active, and instead sealed her into the next closest newborn available- this one. "No! Never!" she screamed, trying to shift dimensions again. But after using once and laying wasting waste to shinobi forces via genjutsu, she lacked the chakra to do it again. The beads glowed before forming a matrix of crackling energy that kept Kaguya in place, before each rosary beads shot towards the infant and hit its body over its heart in the form of a ball of energy. Each one left behind a tattoo in the shape of magatama, until they formed a complete circle of ten.

When the last magatama formed a swirling vortex appeared in the center, which began sucking Kaguya in. "No! No, no, no, no, NOOOO!" she screamed. But try as she might, the Shinigami-empowered beads were far more powerful than Kaguya, and so she was sucked into the vortex. Once she was absorbed the vortex dissipated, the leaving behind the Otsutsuki Clan symbol in the center of the circle of magatama, completing the seal.

The vortex deposited Kaguya in the middle of a dark forest filled with bamboo trees and with a star-covered sky. Knowing that she been successfully sealed away, Kaguya began quivering with anger. All her efforts, all of her planning, her dreams for peace, her desire to put an end to conflict itself. All of it… was over. Roaring in rage, Kaguya flung her hands towards the sky, channeling every last bit of energy and chakra she possessed. A massive Truth-Seeking Ball began to take shape in the sky, growing larger with each passing second and fueled by Kaguya's rage. With a shout she shot forward into the sky, where it exploded in an explosion not too different from that of the ability Tenpachii. Wave after wave of raw power was sent in every direction, cutting swaths through the forest around her that made up the seal.

Outside of the seal the infant was actually sleeping peacefully, not having perceived the sealing as anything other than a bunch of bright lights. A lone wild wolf had actually seen the lights and made its way into the clearing, inspecting. The wolf itself was rather common with a dull coat of shaggy brown fur and brown eyes. But it did looked up when a bright light began to shine from the the spot on the the human infant where his heart would be, and a second later and massive wave of energy containing every nature manipulation shot outwards. Before the wolf could flee it was hit by the wave, and collapsed to the ground, its body covered a black shroud. The wolf writhed in pain and howled, its bones snapping and popping as its body changed in response to the energy of the Truth-Seeking Ball.

Once the transformation was complete the shroud faded away, showing that the wolf was no completely different. For one thing, it was as tall as half a human adult now, and would fully reach that height if it stood on its height. Its fur was now black and sleek, its fangs claws sharper and the color of ivory. The irregularities were in its solid white eyes and the white streaks of its fur which were on the top of its skull, curved to look like horns. Kaguya blinked as she looked around, no longer seeing the inside of the seal. "_Now what?_" she asked herself mentally. Then Kaguya felt a tail sway, ears twitch, and looked down to see herself... in the body of a wolf. Now even angrier than before, she roared in rage, the sound which issued from the possessed wolf's body as a howl.

First she has her real body sealed away into the moon, then she is sealed away a second time in some child by the Shinigami, and _now_ her fit of anger had gotten part of her consciousness stuck in the body of wolf?! WHY?! Then she heard the infant begin crying and stopped, looking over and seeing the seal on its stomach. With a grin that looked like snarl on the possessed body, Kaguya channeled the last shred of her chakra and the wolf's body transformed into the one she had so long ago in a similar manner to her Tailed Beast Transformation, even if with absolutely no power at all in the body. Kaguya grinned wider. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. Now that she had a body she could move about and interact with the world on a physical scale, and once she got rid of this infant lying before her she would get enough of her power to begin working.

With that in mind Kaguya briskly walked forward, stopping in front of the male infant and dropping to one knee. Her nails sharpened into claws, and she raised one. The boy's crying was also grating on her ears; she'd be glad once it was silenced. But then, just as she began to swing downward, the child stopped crying and looked up at Kaguya, its red eyes wide and curious. Kaguya paused- the innocence in those eyes astounded her- before she steeled herself. It didn't matter. It was time to perform her first kill in millennia and put an end to this infant. Yet for some reason, Kaguya's arm wouldn't move despite her commands. She gritted her teeth. "Come on..." she murmured. But nothing happened. Kaguya snarled and lowered her arm, raising the other and trying.

Still nothing.

"What is with me?" she muttered aloud. All she had to do was kill someone, and she could finally have back a sliver of her power to go with this new body. So why wasn't her arm moving, dammit! After another full minute of Kaguya trying to sly the infant while he gazed up at her, Kaguya finally relaxed and dropped her arm. She couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to kill this child, and knew why. When Kaguya had gone on her rampage as the Juubi, she had killed countless people, that much was true, and chances were at least one of them was an infant. She had been a little too berserk at the time to care or know. But kneeling her, face to face, with a child, looking into his eyes, Kaguya couldn't find it in her to land a killing blow.

Kaguya sighed, and shifted her position so that she was sitting on the ground. What to do? She couldn't kill the child, that much was obvious. And although a silver of her spirit had possessed this lupine body, she knew that the majority of her soul remained inside that seal. The Shinigami had no doubt bound her soul to the infants, meaning that if she tried to kill him to escape then she would die as well. But if that were the case, then she needed to keep the child alive. And since it looked like the child had been abandoned- Kaguya hadn't seen one other person since she had shown up- then that we mean she actually have to _raise_ the boy. Kaguya barely suppressed a moan of grief at that. She had given up on raising children after Hagoromo and Hamura.

Granted, a lot of that had been her own fault, what with the messiah-complex and god-complex she had developed. But the memories still left a bad taste in her mouth; she had no desire to raise another child. However, it seemed she had no choice. She would have to be his child's surrogate mother, at least raise him until they found a way to get herself unsealed or the child could support himself. A strange thought came to her. If she were raising and effectively adopting this child, then he would technically become a member of the Otsutsuki Clan. The idea actually made her smile. Given the amount of time that had passed, she had no idea that Hagoromo and Hamura were long dead, and most of the Otsutsuki Clan would probably have died out as well.

But if she were to have this boy become a member of the clan, and Kaguya raised this child adequately this time around, then there would be the perfect person to pass the Otsutsuki legacy onto. The thought that her clan and family would live on made her genuinely smile for the first in a long time. Kaguya looked back down at the infant, who was still lying on the ground, and gently scooped him up into her arms. The baby boy actually giggled a little and smiled at her, causing Kaguya to _chuckle_ of all things. As she began to walk away, Kaguya looked down at the boy. If it really were abandoned, then Kaguya guess that he had no name. "I suppose I'll need to name you then, hm?" she asked, getting another giggle in response.

Naturally the child's last name would be her own, especially if she were to go through with her idea of raising him to be a member of the Otsutsuki Clan. But his first name... that posed a challenge. She wouldn't choose something stupid, such as naming him after a flower or fishcake. No, it had to be something that she felt fitted him. Something that fitted this lost soul she had been sealed to in the middle of a valley... Kaguya stopped. A lost soul in the middle of a valley... A Soul of the Valley... Valley... Kaguya smiled down at the child. "I believe you shall be named _Deiru Otsutsuki_," she declared, and continued her walk.

**And that puts a wrap on the first real chapter of A Shift in Tides. I hope you all liked it, and know that there will be more to come. However, there is something regarding this story that I would liked all of your input on. As the description said, this **_**will**_** be a harem fic. However the harems themselves will only be composed of about three of four woman (I'm putting a max at five) simply because I do not think I could have a harem of any larger and still keep this fic from becoming just series of lemons. That is something that will NOT happen. That being said, I want to hear who you all would like the harems to composed off, so here's a list.**

**Anko**

**Kurenai (will not be paired with the same person as Anko)**

**Yugao**

**Hinata**

**Ino (same as Kurenai and Anko)**

**Yakumo Kurama**

**Fem Haku **

**Temari**

**And Fem Kyuubi**

**That's it. Let me know who you want to be paired with who, along with any other things you want to see said or done, and leave it all in the review box. I'm very open to ideas at this early stage. Don't be afraid to speak up- just don't flame me! (Flames will get you the Thousand Years of Death jutsu right up the a**)**

**Ja ne!**


	3. Chapter 2: Attack

Author's Note: I do not own Naruto or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Hello again! Tamashi here, bringing you the next chapter of A shift In Tides. Hope you all enjoy it, along with the latest replies to those who reviewed!<strong>

**Pyrojack25: Yes, Natsumi and Deiru are both OCs. **

**Generation Zero: Thank you for the suggestions, and know that I shall take your opinion into account.**

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><p>Ch.2 Attack<p>

Six years. That is how long its been since the Kyuubi incident.

That is how long it has been since the Kyuubi was sealed into Naruto and Natsumi, and how long Konoha had to recover from both it and the war with Iwa. It had also been how long since Kaguya Otsutsuki had the greater part of her spirit sealed into a boy named Deiru, with only a tiny fragment escaping to possess the body of a wolf, which Kaguya subsequently transformed into a human body so that she could raise her surrogate son (thought no one else knew about that).

Following the Kyuubi's attack, Sarutobi had planned to reveal to the village that the fox was sealed into the Uzumaki twins. The threat of castration and the burning of his Icha-Icha novels by Kushina had been enough to stop _that _plan before it even started. However, Sarutobi was obliged to disclose the secret to the council, and unfortunately one of the civilian council members had decided that the Sandaime was too soft to enforce the decree and blabbed. He had been caught and executed, of course, but by then that damage had already been done. Sarutobi announced that the penalty of speaking about the Kyuubi was now forbidden amongst the entire village, and he was sad to admit that more than a few drunken and loose-tongued villagers had met their end that way.

Fortunately, Kushina's skills as a former ANBU before her retirement along with the help of her three students Anko, Kurenai and Yugao- the last of whom was now in the ANBU herself- had helped to keep Naruto and Natsumi from suffering any abuse at the villagers' hands. There were the glares and mutters, but any more was swiftly prevented. Any who tried to harm Kushina's children would learn exactly why she was called the 'Red Death'. Tsunade was also able to help, Kushina having been able to convince her to stay. If not for Konoha, then for her student and her student's children. Jiraiya also showed up from time to time- when he wasn't maintaining his spy network or at hot springs- as well as Kakashi, to check up his former sensei's wife, son and daughter.

While things were peaceful though, they couldn't last forever. However well protected Naruto and Natsumi could have been, they were bound to face the brunt of the village's hatred sooner or later. That incident just happened to occur on their sixth birthday.

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><p>Naruto and Natsumi were grinning triumphantly as they sneaked around the village. Their Kaa-chan had told them to stay inside the clan compound, but if there was one thing they wanted to do it was to explore the Kyuubi festival. It was held every year on their birthday, which was the same night that they Kyuubi had been defeated. Kaa-chan had told them that it had been defeated by their father, the Yondaime Hokage by sealing it into the two of them. Their mother had been the previous jinchuuriki, and now it was their job to keep the fox locked inside of them According to their mother the Kyuubi actually wasn't that bad; the reason she had attacked Konoha in the first place was because of a genjutsu.<p>

"Onii-chan, you made sure to make those shadow clones of us, right?" Natsumi asked. Natsumi appeared to be a carbon copy of Kushina from her childhood, minus the fact that her hair also possessed blond highlights. Her eyes were also sapphire blue instead of purple, and possessed a striking intelligence. Currently she was dressed a black kimono top she had gotten from Tsunade and black shinobi pants with sandals and separate pouches for kunai and shuriken on her left and right hip respectively. Her hair was tied back in single long ponytail. Naruto was of equal height and had on a white t-shirt with the Uzumaki crest of the back over mesh armor, and his shinobi pants were dark blue while he also had on black fingerless gloves. He also had his mother purple eyes and his hair was even spikier than Minato's had been, with red tips. On the cheeks of both twins were a set of whisker marks.

Naruto grinned at his sister's question. "Course I did. And I put enough chakra into them that they'll last at least a couple hours. Since Kaa-chan said that we wouldn't be doing any training, this'll be the perfect chance to see the festival!" he said, grinning like a madman. Natsumi felt her lips twitch in a smile. Her brother had always been the more energetic of the two, inheriting Kushina's immense stamina, energy and optimism. Natsumi was more of the quiet one, more thoughtful and being the "thinker" of the pair while Naruto was the "doer". The influences of the Yin and Yang from the Kyuubi could be seen. The two kept going and eventually reached the market square, looking around.

There were countless stalls that were hawking goods or advertising prices, and mixed in were stands that sold food, hosted games or were set up with special merchandise for just that particular day. The taverns also had their doors wide open, with civilians and shinobi alike entering for a drink. The sounds, sights and even the smells were all fascinating to the two youths, and even Natsumi had to stop a moment to take it all in. Naruto recovered first though, and yelled "AWESOME, DATTEBAYO!" before shooting forward with near jonin-level speed for the nearest activity booth. Natsumi lips twitched again. While she hadn't been one-hundred percent sure about leaving the clan compound to see the festival, it looked like it had been worth it. And even though she knew the villagers were still mad over the Kyuubi, their anger could be too bad. Right?

The stall Naruto ran to was a simple game of tossing a ring onto one of any bottles set in a row, with the more successful attempts causing greater prizes. Naruto quickly pulled out the toad-shaped wallet Jiraiya had given him and slapped the necessary amount of ryo onto the counter. "I'd like to play, please!" he yelled. The stall manager appeared from the back and was about to smile when he noticed exactly who was standing in front of him, that that small immediately faded. "Sorry, but we're currently not open," he said stiffly, keeping his temper in check.

Naruto blinked before frowning and pointing a sign that said "Open". "But, your sign says-" he began. Then the man leaned over and flipped over the sign so that it now read "Closed".

"Not. Open," the manager said tightly, his eyes flashing with anger. Naruto saw the look and took a step back, bowing his head. He took his money back and left. Natsumi followed, while the man watched them go with barely controlled hate. Damn demon had the gall to just waltz up to his stall and act like any other child? When he could _see_ the whisker marks that proved otherwise?! The manager growled and went to the back to grab a bottle of sake. He needed it now, before he did something drastic and got the ANBU on his ass.

Saddened that he had been flatly rejected by the game manager, Naruto hung his head. At least, until he felt his sister's hand on his shoulder and looked at her. Natsumi smiled fully this time. "Hey, maybe the next place won't be so bad," he pointed out. Naruto smiled back and nodded. "Thanks, Natsumi-chan," he said, and kept going. Unfortunately, the same process repeated itself with the next stall. And then the next and then the next. Everywhere they went they were told the stall was closed or out of merchandise, when it was obvious neither was true. Yet when the twins persisted, they were told to either get out and face the consequences. And when they looked back at stalls they had already been to, they could see other children being allowed to play or get food. The managers even had smiles.

And so, several hours later the sun was beginning to set and Naruto and Natsumi sat down on a bench, both of them tired from the walking and completely disheartened. Not a single stall had let them play, buy something of even eat. Not having brought a lunch the two of them were hungry, and Naruto's ever-present energy was severely diminished. "Do they really not like us that much?" he asked. Natsumi sighed. "I guess so. I don't know why though. Tou-san was a hero and the whole village loved him, so why wouldn't they trust he could seal the Kyuubi right?" she replied rhetorically. Naruto sighed. Well, today had been a complete bust. All that hope, walking and effort for squat. "Guess we should head back home then, huh?" he asked, and his sister nodded.

The two stood and began walking their way through the streets in the direction of the Uzumaki-Namikaze compound. They were just passing by one of the taverns when suddenly both of them heard a slurred yell of "Hey! Itsh the demonsh!" They both turned and saw a severely drunk adult genin standing there, with several other equally hammered civilians and two other shinobi showing up. "Yeah! They're notsh inshide their den now! Let'sh get 'em!" another yelled. The Uzumaki twins froze as the mob gave a general roar of agreement before charging forward. Naruto's eyes widened in terror, and he snapped out of it long enough to yell "RUN!" That snapped Natsumi out as well, and they both turned and ran as fast as they could.

They had made it about three blocks before the longer legs of the adult mob caught up to them.

_**At the Uzumaki-Namikaze Compound**_

Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze smiled as she placed the last candle of Naruto's birthday cake, doing the same with Natsumi's. Her long hair had only gotten longer in the past six years to where it reached her thighs. She still kept herself in the shape was prior to retiring, and was currently dressed a dark blue formal kimono with white socks. Since today was the twins' sixth birthday, tomorrow would be the day they would begin their ninja training to become shinobi of the leaf. Kushina knew that her children would be great ones too. After all, they were her and Minato's kids. The thought of Minato caused her to pause for a second and her smile faltered, before she shook her head and shoved the memory away. She could be all sad and stuff later. Today was a day for celebration, especially since Jiraiya was actually here this time, and her friends Mikoto and Tsume were bringing their children.

"How does this look, Kushina-senpai?" she heard a voice asked. Turning around Kushina saw the younger form of Shizune trying to hold a length of streamer over the walkway into the living room. She was currently there to help Kushina set up the party, while Tsunade-sensei was out gathering sake for when the children went to bed and any anybody felt like a drink. Kushina had a feeling though that nobody but Tsunade herself would ever see that liquor. Kushina smiled at Shizune and nodded, before taking out another length of streamer and hanging it over the other so that they cross-crossed. "Yes, perfect," she replied. Shizune smiled and out back to help Jiraiya and Itachi with setting up the tables outside. Mikoto and assigned that job to them and, although they protested, the angry glare of wrathful female Uchiha, who was mother to one of them, was something they now never wanted to see again.

Kushina turned to the cakes and placed them in the refrigerator, while also pulling out the various foodstuffs to take outside. Looking outside she saw that it was almost sunset, which would mean that the other guests would be arriving soon. Kushina quickly went outside and place the food and the set tables, and then went back inside.

"Naruto-kun, Natsumi-chan, it's time to start getting ready!" she called. Kushina stood there, but after a moment all she was met with was silence. Kushina frowned. "Naruto? Natsumi?" she called again. Still nothing. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't heard much of anything from either of her son or daughter while she was busy. Frowning, Kushina started walking for the stairs to head to their rooms. She had given them each a scroll the day before on nin, gen and taijutsu, so maybe Naruto and just fallen asleep while Natsumi was so absorbed in her reading she hadn't heard her. Kami knows how many times that last one happened.

She reached the door to Natsumi's room on the second floor and knocked. "Natsumi-chan?" she asked. When she was met with still more silence, she slid it open and saw that her daughter was sleeping, snoring silently. Kushina was about to smile and walk forward when Natsumi suddenly burst into smoke, indicating that it had been a shadow clone. Kushina's eyes snapped wide and she spun around, running to the other end of the whole where Naruto's room was. Sliding it open without knocking she was just in time to see a sleeping Naruto burst into smoke as well. Another shadow clone. Kushina turned again and ran into the hall. "Naruto-kun! Natsumi-chan! Where are you? This isn't funny!" she yelled, while also sending out a pulse of chakra.

She felt the chakra signatures of Jiraiya, Itachi, Shizune, but no one else. Naruto and Natsumi weren't in the compound. At that her blood ran cold. If they had gotten out of the compound on _today_ of all days... '_Oh Kami, NO!_' Kushina thought to herself before rushing down at the stairs at full speed. She stopped once she was in the backyard, calling "Jiraiya! Shizune! Itachi!" The three of them stopped at her panicked tone and looked up, seeing her standing there with a look that told them was something was up. "What's wrong?" the toad sage asked. He looked the same as ever- same white hair, horned forehead protector, kabuki outfit and red lines on his face. Itachi was, for once, dressed in a civilian garb of a black t-shirt and pants with shinobi sandals.

"It's Naruto and Natsumi. They snuck out of the compound and left shadow clones behind!" Kushina said. At that their eyes all widened, but Itachi recovered quickly. "I'll go find Anko, Kurenai and Yugao to help. Shizune, you go find Tsunade. Jiraiya, inform Hokage-sama of this. Something bad may have already happened. Kushina, you begin searching for them and we'll join you shortly," he commanded. All of them nodded and spread out, Jiraiya vanishing in a shunshin and Itachi bursting into a flock of crows. Kushina and Shizune an inside, Kushina stopping to change into her full ANBU armor in less than a minute, complete with a Kitsune mask. She strapped her personal red-sheathed sword, Aka no Shi, to her waist and ran out of the compound, locking the doors once Shizune left. Then she also vanished in shunshin.

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><p>Deiru Otsutsuki grunted as he was disturbed from his daily meditation. The last six years had been both kind and cruel to the young boy. He was still alive and possessed a home, even if the more proper description was 'rat-hole'. His features were once destined to make him and miniature of Orochimaru, but Kaguya had made sure to change that from within her seal. He still retained the pale skin color, but his features were now different. He possessed the same chin as her mother and straight, angular features, including a small but pointed nose. His eyebrows were cut short like his mothers, and his spiky hair reached his shoulder blades, caught between white and black to form a shade of ash gray. A black blindfold was placed over his eyes, and on his forehead were the signature two red dots of the Kaguya clan.<p>

The 'apartment' possessed a single room with enough space for a bed and desk, an adjacent bathroom and a short hallway leading a single large room which possess the living room, dining room and kitchen all in one, with a counter separating the kitchen and dining room for the living room. There had once been a colony of rats and various groups of insects festering the place, going through the cracks in the graffiti-ed walls and miniscule holes in the floor. Not much, but considering Kaguya was unable to show her face win the village without causing a uproar over the sight of her horns and Hyuuga-like eyes, it was enough. It also was helped kept in Deiru's possession via his part-time job at that noodle stand... Ichiraku, was it?

On the couch sat a wolf the size of a pony, with jet black fur that was white over the head in the shape of horns and tiny squiggles of white around its eyes that looked like veins, with a single closed eyelid that was vertical in the middle of its forehead. It clawed were curved and very sharp, with the same said for its unnaturally ivory fangs. Currently the wolf was resting while Deiru was sitting in the middle of the living room in lotus position, clad in only a mesh t-shirt and black shorts. His eyebrow twitched as he attempted to focus his chakra once again to sense the chakra of the others members of this... _village_. It was a good exercise for when Kaguya would begin his training tomorrow. Though she thoroughly hated the fact that humanity had turned chakra into nothing more than a weapon, a hatred Deiru shared, she was not going to having her adoptive son be weak in comparison to the other humans. If that meant using everything Kaguya had seen in the past few millennia to teach him the shinobi arts, then so be it.

Which is why Deiru was currently trying to activate his sensing abilities. When he tried though, and with impressive amounts of success, he sensed two rather large yet young chakra signatures ran past his apartment complex, followed by a large group of smaller adult ones. Deiru frowned, focusing on the two larger signatures. The size of them rivaled that of this village's Hokage despite seeming to be as he young as he was. Such a thing was impossible save for it these two were... jinchuuriki. Deiru groaned. '_The fools actually went out into town on the day of the Kyuubi festival? Did their mother not warn them or something?_' he wondered to himself.

Turning to face the wolf on the couch, Deiru asked "What should I do, Kaa-sama?" The wolves twitched and its eyes slowly opened, revealing them to be as white as the marking on its fur. "**Do?**" the voice of Kaguya replied in his head. Deiru nodded. "Should I leave them be, or help? We haven't begun my training yet, so I would not be of much help against the shinobi of that mob," he pointed out. Kaguya was silent, contemplating, before she eventually nodded. Deiru did the same and stood, walking into his room and changing into a pair of black shinobi pants and black gloves with metal plates sewn onto the fingers. He then placed a holster for his kunai and shuriken on his left hip, and began making his way for the door. Kaguya slowly stood and stretched her lupine form before joining him outside as he locked up the apartment.

As they left Kaguya inclined her head towards her son. "**You do realize that attempting to save them will cause them to acknowledge you, correct?**" she inquired. Deiru nodded, before smiling. "Yes, I do. Who knows? I may obtain my first set of friends," he said thoughtfully. Kaguya chuckled, the sound of which came out similar to a snarl, and they both rushed forward.

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><p><strong>Three hours later...<strong>

Naruto groaned as he slowly awoke, feeling nothing but cold hard stone beneath. Opening his eyes he could feel the back of his head throbbing painfully, causing him to groan again and shut his eyes and he placed hand over the offended area. After a few seconds though, he could hear another very familiar voice groan, and snapped open his eyes to see Natsumi lying next to him. She awoke as well, holding the side of her temple. "What happened?" was the first word that came out of her mouth, with Naruto shaking his head,

"I don't know. I don't really remem-" he began, but then he stopped. He DID remember. The rejection from the people of the village. The walking back home. The mob. Naruto gasped as it came back, and from the look on Natsumi's face the same thing happened to her. Quickly she whipped her head from side to side. "Where are we?" she asked quickly. The interior of wherever they were looked like an abandoned warehouse, with dim bar lights overhead and the entire area fading to shadows ten feet away in any direction. But if the mob had been chasing them, how did they end up here?

The answer came in the form of several sinister chuckles from just beyond where the light could reach. Most of them seemed to be coming front right in front of them, so they looked that way. "Who are you? What's going on?" Natsumi questioned. She got more chuckles in response, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up at the sheer _malice_ in those laughs.

"Why, it's quite simple. We're the ones who are going to dish out the punishment you so rightly deserve," one of the figures said, stepping forward to be a chunnin from the mob, who was noticeable more sober than the rest of the group. His statement was met with a series of cries of agreement.

"Time to kill the demons!"

"Make them suffer!"

"We'll kill them and avenge Yondaime-sama!"

With each statement Naruto and Natsumi shuffled closer to each other out of fear. They had no idea the hatred from the villagers was this bad. If so, they never would have tried to sneak out. As it was, when Naruto moved to stand he was swiftly kicked the back, knocking him back down. "Onii-chan!" Natsumi shouted, before she was kicked as well, so that they were both lying on the ground. Naruto moved to stand but was kicked again so that he was on his back, looking up. More of the crowd, a dozen people in total, began to step forward to get in on the action. In their hands they held a variety of weapon, ranging from bats to knives scalpels and even a simple fork with its prongs sharpened.

"Some of you, hold them down. We don't need them struggling during this," the chunnin said, who was apparently somewhat in charge. The two other shinobi each grabbed one of Natsumi's arms and held her down, while two civilians pinned her legs and fur more did the same to Naruto. They twins kicked and flailed in terror, but nothing would break them free. "Stop! Please, stop! We haven't done anything!" Natsumi said. One of the civilians holding her down growled and used her free hand to punch the child in the face.

"Shut the fuck up, you lying beast! You're the one who killed my daughter! There weren't even pieces for her body to be recovered and buried!" she screamed.

"This is for my daughter as well!" another mob member said, taking the sharpened fork and stabbing into Naruto's right arm. He screamed in pain as the man twisted it, causing even further damage. Another took the chance to swing their bat around and collide it with the side of his knee, causing it to bend sideways with a _crack_! Natsumi tried to all out for her brother but was punch in the face again, this time knocking a tooth loose. One of the shinobi whipped out a kunai and shoved in chest, hitting her in the rib-section. Natsumi screamed, but then received a stomp on the stomach that knocked the wind out of her, stopping her scream short.

"My father was one of the shinobi fighting you. He was wripped to shred by your claws, so here!" another one yelled, taking out an actualy pair of metal claws and raking them down her left leg, leaving four bloody gouges in their wake. Natsumi screamed again and Naruto struggled harder, but received a brick to the side of his head for his troubles, nearly knocking him out. Blood was beginning to stain his white shirt and blond hair, while Natsumi's turned an even darker shade than natural from a punch that was done with brass knuckles. More and more blows were rained down, causing the twins to be kicked, slapped, punched, slashed, stabbed and bleeding.

After what felt an eternity the twins were lying in a pair of heaps. Naruto's shirt was been torn to shreds and several ribs were broken, along with both of his arms and blood flowed freely from a cut above his right eyebrow. Natsumi left shoulder was dislocated and two of her teeth had been knocked out, while both of her feet were bent at an awkward angle. Both children were now reduced to simply whimpering in pain. No longer having the strength to scream. Naruto cracked one eyes opened and looked over at his sister. "Nat…sumi…" he groaned, but then he was hit with the brock again and knocked clean out. Natsumi was about to suffer the same fate when the chunnin held up his hand. "Hold on. There's one last thing I want to do," he said.

The rest of them looked at him, and he dropped to his knees in front of her. "Spread her legs open," he commanded. Their eyes widened, and while some grinned demonically one of them looked unsure. "Um, are you sure? Even for me, that's kind of sick," he said. The chunnin shrugged. "I lost my wife and unborn son in that attack. This thing is going to pay the ultimate price for it," he said. That was enough to convince the last villager, and the spread Natsumi's legs. That was enough to shock her back to full consciousness. After finding one of Jiraiya's books Natsumi had been given "the talk" early, and because of that she understood completely what they were about to do.

"No, stop!" she screamed, only to for her pleas to go unanswered as what was left of her shinobi pants were ripped off, leaving her bottom half clad only in a pair of white panties. She struggled harder, more terrified now than ever before, but when she did she was punched in the mouth, knocking out another tooth. The chunnin sneered, undoing the belt to his pants and pulling them down.

"Get ready, fox bitch! Time for you punishment!" he yelled, pulling her panties to the side. Natsumi closed her eyes and screamed as loud as she could.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Just before the chunnin could commence though, he heard a snarl and a wall of black fur filled his vision. Razor-sharp teeth sank into his neck and ripped a part out, letting blood spray everywhere. The chunnin let go and fell back, gurgling as he held his hand to his neck. It was useless though; in seconds the loss of blood killed him. The other members of the mob were also frozen in fear as they saw a female wolf the size of small horse in front of, which was currently spitting the part of the man's throat it had torn. What terrified them though was not that, but its eyes. Its regular ones were the same shade of white as the infamous Hyuuga's, while there was third eye in the middle of its forehead that looked like the Sharingan but with three circles that had tomoe on each.

Natsumi was also scared of the strange creature, even if it was lessened considering the fact that it had just saved her. "Disgusting," they heard a voice say, and they turned around to see a third child, one with ash gray hair and wearing a blindfold, standing there with a kunai in hand. "To think that you would go so far in your hatred as to rape a child… Sometimes I wonder if Kaa-sama was in the right when she went on that rampage," he said, shaking his head. The mob got over their fear quickly and one of them stood, glaring at the child. "Who are you? How did you find this place?" she demanded. Although he was blindfolded, they could tell Deiru rolled his eyes. "Kaa-sama followed your sent here, simpleton. And I should let you know that she has a very low tolerance for either rapists or perverts," he said.

As if to prove his points the large wolf began growling, releasing its own large amounts of Killing Intent. The civilians were all completely frozen by the feeling of it, while Natsumi noticed that none of it was affecting her. Taking this as her chance, she broke free of the grips of the villagers and sent a thankful glance towards Deiru before running towards her brother. "Onii-chan!" he said, dropping to her knees and shaking him. But it was no use- the additionally paralyzed civilians holding him had done their work. "Onii-chan! Onii-chan, wake up!" she said. All Naruto did was groan. Deiru gazed at them for a moment before turning back to civilians. "Kaa-sama, is today the day I perform my first kill?" he asked. The wolf nodded, and Deiru bowed his head before rushing forward, adding a kunai to his other hand.

The sight of him rushing forward was enough to snap the villagers out of their fear, but before they could do anything other than shout Deiru shoved a kunai into the throats of each of the other two shinobi. Quickly, Deiru pulled the kunai back out and shoved them into the foreheads of the two that had been previously holding Natsumi's legs. There was a _crunch_ as the blades pierced bone, and then Deiru pulled them out and slammed both kunai into the stomach of the sixth mob member. The civilian gasped, before gurgling as blood began spilling from its mouth and around Deiru's hands. Then he pulled the kunai out and turned to the other six, who were even now unable to move from fear. Deiru sneered. Cowardly weaklings.

But then he stopped when Kaguya spoke to him. "**Sochi, let me kill the other half. As you said, my attitude towards perverts is rather… negative,**" she said. Deiru stopped and nodded, dropping the kunai. The moment they clattered against the ground Kaguya sped forward, immediately tearing out the throat of another civilian before her claws glinted and tore across the chest of the eight mob member. She fell back but the fur of Kaguya's tail hardened to the strength of steel (Rabbit Hair Needle) and slammed into her head, cleaving it clean off of its shoulders. Then Kaguya bit into the arm of the ninth and with a snarl rippied it out of its socket, before spinning around actually using the severed appendage to club the tenth villager in the side of the head, causing a concussion.

Kaguya then spat out the severed arm and jumped onto the tenth, crushing its head beneath her strength and swinging her hardened tail again. This time several hairs hot out like senbon needles and pierced the eleventh villager in the heart, eyes, jugular and reproductive organs. He collapsed to the ground and the final villager was shaking like a leaf. Kaguya grinned, showing off her bloody fangs as she slowly approached. Once she was an arm's reach away, she growled at him, though Deiru could understand the words. "**Burn in hell as you meet demons even greater than myself, fool,**" she said, before pouncing on him as he screamed.

By the time she was finished the last villager was literally in pieces, which were scattered about the abandoned warehouse. Natsumi had been horrified by the brutal scene and stared at Kaguya in fear. The goddess in lupine form seemed to shrug, not really caring, and walked back towards Deiru, who dropped to one knee. Before he could say anything though, the side of the wall exploded inwards, creating a large cloud of dust. Deiru sprang to his feet and picked up his kunai, while Natsumi also stood and Kaguya growled. But that was smoke immediately cleared via Wind Release from none other than Kushina, who ran forward.

"Naruto! Natsumi!" he called. Natsumi looked shocked, her eyes widening before she launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around her mother. "Kaa-chan!" she yelled, hugging her mother tightly. Kushina immediately caught her and began comforting her, shushing and whispering words of comforts in her ear. "Shh… It's okay, musume. Kaa-chan's here now," she said softly. From that same hole emerged Hiruzen Sarutobi, along with Jiraiya, Tsunade, SHizune, Itachi , Anko, Kurenai, Yugao and three squads of ANBU following the Sandaime. Quickly he took in the scene of death around, with one ANBU wearing a dog mask saying "What the fuck happened in here?"

"That, Inu, is a very good question," the old man answered. At the sound of their voice Natsumi looked up from her mother shoulder, smiling. "Jiji!" she said, breaking away from her mother and running towards him. Hiruzen caught and chuckled. Normally the girl was so level-head and cool. But then again, this was a normal occasion. He then frowned when he noticed something, and asked "Where's Naruto?" Natsumi paused and looked back, past Kushina. They all looked ahead and saw Naruto's unconscious form being examined by Deiru. Before any of them could say anything, he said "He'll be fine. A possible concussion, but nothing he won't heal from." Kushina, Natsumi, Hiruzen and Inu all sighed, while Kushina stepped forward to pick up her son.

"Thank you for the help. But what happened here?" she questioned. Deiru sighed. "You are Uzumaki-san, correct?" he asked. Kushina nodded. "Then might I suggest that we discuss this inside your clan compound? This isn't really the place for it," he said. Kushina and Hiruzen both nodded, with the latter turning back to his troops. "The Uzumaki twins have been found. Now, all of you return to your previous posts," he ordered. "Hai!" they all said, and vanished. Then he switched his gaze to the others. "Now, let us make our way back. By the way, young man, what is your name?" he asked, also curious as to why he was wearing a blindfold. Deiru looked at Kaguya for a second, her third eye closed, before she nodded. Deiru did the same, and looked back at Hiruzen. "My name is Deiru Otsutsuki, Hokage-sama," he said.

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><p>It was not a good day to be vase. Or a book. Or even a bookshelf. Why?<p>

The reason for that was that each of those items were simultaneously destroyed by a single punch from an enraged Kushina. Her fist went right through the bookshelf and into the wall of the living room, creating an explosion that destroyed the aforementioned items. Currently Kushina was literally trembling with rage, her hair rising up like nail tails and her body was covering a red light from releasing latent amounts of the Kyuubi's chakra. After a few seconds she pulled her fist back out, before turning around and glaring at Deiru. "They did WHAAAT?!" she roared. While Deiru maintained a neutral facial expression thanks to lessons in emotional control from Kaguya, inside he was still fearful.

_'Kaa-sama, this woman's almost as scary as you_,' he thought. Kaguya chuckled inside his head, and watched with interest.

Taking a deep breath, Deiru looked over at sight of a sleeping and now fully-clothed Natsumi, who was lying next to a still unconscious but healed Naruto on the couch. "It's as I said, Uzumaki-san. I was in my apartment when I sensed Naruto and Natsumi running past, followed by a group of about a dozen villagers. I followed along with Kaa-sama, and by trailing their scent we found them inside an abandoned warehouse, with your son unconscious and the mob about to rape your daughter," he said, his voice showing an edge of anger at that last past. Standing in the room were Hiruzen, Tsunade and Shizune, the rest having gone home once it was made sure that the twins were fine at that they would get the full story later.

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed at the story. If the hatred from the villagers was getting this bad, he would need to do something soon. Tsunade would have been planning on finding the mob and breaking them in half with her bare hands had they not already been dead, and Shizune was imagining the various poisons she could have used to make their experience at the hands of her master all the more painful. But even through his anger Hiruzen was still looking critically at Deiru, along with the wolf sitting next to him. "And you claim that you murdered half of the mob members, while the wolf you refer to as 'Kaa-sama' killed their other half?" he asked.

Deiru nodded, putting a solemn look. "Yes... they were my first kill actually. I can still feel their blood on my hands," he said, looking down at said hands. Hiruzen flinched at that, along with everyone else save for Natsumi and Naruto. To perform a kill was an endeavor that forever changed someone, and to do it at six years old... Kaguya mentally snorted at their expressions; she had prepared her son for performing his first kill months ago. But it seemed that her lessons in acting and manipulation were paying off as well, so she kept quiet.

"Well, I don't what else to say except... thank you. Thank you saving my son and daughter," Kushina said, smiling and standing to bow. Deiru raised an eyebrow at the gesture. "There's no need to be so formal and to thank me, Uzumaki-san. I was merely doing what the _right_ person would do," he said. Kushina smiled wider. This kid wasn't bad. And from what he had told them, he was an orphan was well, living on his own. When he mentioned working at Ichiraku's the redhead remembered Ayame actually saying something about a child that had asked for job there. It seems that this was that kid. So deep in her pondering was she that Kushina didn't even notice Deiru getting up and standing in front of her until he stretched out a hand.

She blinked and looked at him, and he smiled. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Uzumaki-san. I apologize, but I'll have to leave- I need to return home and get some sleep," he said, shaking her hand and turning for the door. Kushina blinked, before calling "Wait!"

Deiru stopped, and looked back with Kaguya also curious. Kushina smiled. "Why don't you stay here tonight in one of the guest rooms? It's the least I can do for saving my children. And please, call me Kushina," she said. Deiru looked faintly surprised before smiling and nodding. "Thank for, Kushina-san. I'll do that," he said, before walking down the hall that led from the living room to find a guest room with Kaguya next to him. Once he was gone Hiruzen sighed. "Oh, this incident is going to give me so much paperwork," he said, groaning at the thought. The rest of them laughed, before Shizune looked at the hallway. "Still though, the boy is strange. To be able to let out enough Killing Intent to freeze them in place so he could kill them... And he hasn't even received an proper ninja training yet," she observed.

The rest of them nodded. "Yes, and that wolf of his was strnage as well. You don't think he could be an Inuzuka, do you?" Tsunade asked. Hiruzen shook his head. "If that were the case, he would have their markings. No, the dots on his forehead actually show him to be a member of the Kaguya clan," he said. Everyone else looked at him in shock. "T-The Kaguya clan?! I thought they were extinct!" Kushina exclaimed. "Apparently not. Whether or not that boy knows of heritage is still a mystery, but there is the chance that he could awaken their deadly bloodline. If that's the case, he'll need a proper ninja to tutor him," the old Hokage said, before rubbing his forehead. "Yet another thing for me to figure out..." he said, before shaking his head.

"Well, I must be returning home for the night. Kushina, Tsunade, Shizune," he said, before opening the door and leaving for the Sarutobi compound. Tsuande smiled and gave her student a hug, saying "I'll come by tomorrow and check on them again," she promised. Kushina nodded and hugged back. "Thank you," she said. Shizune and her also hugged and bid farewell, heading for the Senju estate. Kushina sighed before picking up both Naruto and Natsumi. She carried them to their respective rooms and tucking them in, before checking on Deiru. The boy was already sleeping in the guest room, with Kaguya lying next to him. Kushina smiled and went to her own room, lying down and falling asleep.

At that moment though, he bodies of Naruto and Natsumi began flickering with the same red chakra that Kushina had released, while the chakra around Deiru's body was a light gray shot through with threads of gold. Both forms of chakra took shape, the red chakra taking the form of fox while the the gray-gold chakra formed the shape of a rabbit.

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><p><strong>And that's a wrap on the second chapter of A Shift in Tides. Please review, and give me feedback on his story. What is the meaning of the chakra? I think you all can guess. What will be the result? Find out next chapter. Does Deiru share Kaguya's ambition, and who will his mentor be? Both questions shall be answered.<strong>

**Also, I left a few people out of the list of characters for the harem last chapter, so here is the entire list. Not all of the people on this list will become a part of either harem. Their just possibilities. It is your suggestions and opinions that will decide who goes with who. (Each harem will have a max of five members.)**

**Anko **

**Kurenai (cannot be in the same as Anko)**

**Hinata**

**Ino (cannot be in the same as Hinata)**

**Yugao**

**Sakura**

**Yakumo Kurama**

**Fem Haku**

**Temari**

**Hana Inuzuka**

**Shizune**

**Also, not every pairing will begin at the same time. This is still a serious fic, and so each pairing will begin at different times and not all happen at once. **

**And that's it. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Ja ne!**


	4. Chapter 3: Meeting

Author's Note: I do not own Naruto or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Notice: I hope all of you had a great Christmas and New Year, and now it is I that has brought you the latest chapter of A Shift in Tides, along with replies to those who reviewed!<strong>

**The Dark Dragon Emperor: I have heard your request, and at the end of the chapter you will see how have taken it into account.**

**Pyrojack25: So do I. That's why I find poetic justice in he fact that this one had his throat torn out by a massive wolf. **

**Koga the oc fan: I like your suggestions. Thank you for the kind words.**

**And Mr Beaver Buttington: One of those requests has indeed come true.**

**And now, let it begin!**

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><p>Ch.3 Meeting<p>

Natsumi slowly opened her eyes, hearing the sound of dripping water around her. All around there was what appeared to be a large sewer, with water that was ankle-deep and several pipes along the walls. Looking closer she could see that one pipe was blue and the smallest one there, while a second was medium-sized and filled with a purple liquid, while the last pipe, the largest of them, and a shining red. The ceiling couldn't be seen, as the wall reached up and up into total darkness. Shaking her head and trying to figure out what was going on, she sat up. How in the world did she end up here? "Let's see... Kaa-chan had saved me and Onii-chan from... that mob..." she said, trailing off as she shuddered. To think there were people who would be willing to do... _that_ to her.

The very memories made Natsumi feel vulnerable and want to vomit. This was even worse then Jiraiya. Shaking her head again to clear the memories, Natsumi took another look and noticed another sleeping figure not to far away. A figure that looked like- "Onii-chan!" Natsumi called, standing and running over. It was indeed Naruto, snoring peacefully without a care on the world. Natsumi dropped next to him and began shaking his shoulder. "Onii-chan, wake up! We need to figure out where we are! Onii-chan!" she said. No luck. Naruto wasn't even affected by her efforts. Frowning, she began to think of something that might wake him up when a proverbial light bulb went off in her head. Smiling, she stood up. Normally she wouldn't yell this loudly, bu right now she needed to.

Taking a deep breath, her lung expanded outwards until, with all the strength she could muster, Natsumi yelled "ALL YOU CAN EAT RAMEN! STEP RIGHT UP!"

As expected, Naruto's eyes snapped open and he shot into the air like a cannon, actually hovering for a few seconds as he looked around. "What?! All you can eat? Where?!" he demanded, whipping his head from side to side. He was expecting to see a giant ramen stand, even just a giant ramen bowl. But instead he got a... sewer? It was then that gravity caught up with the young blonde, and with a shut he plummeted back on to the ground, kicking up a splash. Natsumi giggled as he stood back on, still searching until he saw her. "Oh, hey Imoto-chan. Do you know where the ramen is?" he asked. Natsumi snorted at that. "Onii-chan, there is no ramen. I just that to wake you up," she said. All at once the light in Naruto's eyes dimmed, and he hung his head as a raincloud appeared.

"No... ramen...?" he asked, sniffling. Natsumi sweat-dropped at her brother behavior, before sighing. "No about that, but we need to focus. Do you know where we are?" she asked. Naruto stopped at that, looking around. "Well, we did fall sleep after Kaa-chan and that one kid, Deiru, saved us. Didn't Kaa-chan tell us something about a... mindscape?" Natsumi nodded, remembering. "Yeah, she did. Do you think this could be our mindscape? But then, why we would both be in the same one?" she questioned. Naruto shrugged, when suddenly they felt a gust of warm air hit them from behind. They both turned, but saw nothing. After a few second there was a gust again, and a bestial voice saying "**This way...**"

"Huh?" Naruto said. After another moment there was another gust, almost like breathing. "**Well, come on. We don't have all day**," the voice said. The two Uzumaki twins looked at each for a second, before following the sound of the voice. The hallways were a complete maze; every single one looked like the other. The voice occasionally gave words of encouragement like "**That's the right way**" or "**Good**". The more they listen to it, the more they listened to it, the more the voice sounded... feminine?

Eventually they reached the end of the maze of hallways, and before them stood a massive pair of gates. The top of them was just like the ceiling- unseen- and they appeared to only be held shut by a piece of paper with the kanji for "seal". The breathing was coming from inside the gates, which was enveloped in shadow. Naruto was about to try and walk between the bars when a a massive pair of eyes with red irises and slitted pupils opened in the dark, glowing. Naruto gulped and took a step back, both twins looking at the eyes. Each eye was larger than their whole body. The voice from earlier huffed. "**Finally, the two of you show up. I've been trying to get you in here ever sine those foolish villagers attacked**," it said, regarding both siblings impassively.

"W-Who are you? How did you know about that?" Natsumi asked, intimidated. The eyes blinked before looking down, realizing that the rest of it could be seen. "**Oh... right. Be patient for a moment**," the being stated. They was a large gust from behind them, as if they being were inhaling, before a large fireball shot from where its mouth would be and sailed upwards. Once it reached a respectable height the ball stopped, staying in place and illuminating the massive creature before them. Th creature was a giant fox, easily as tall as the Hokage Monument with just its torso. It's upper body structure was similar to that of a human though, with opposable thumbs on the end of each clawed hand. It ears were also woe like that a rabbit than a fox's, and the entire beast's body was covered in orange fur.

To seal the deal, nine large tails flicked from side to side behind it.

Both Naruto and Natsumi's eyes threatened to pop out of their skulls in shock. Standing right before them was the... "K-Kyuubi?" Natsumi asked. The massive fox chuckled. "**That is my title, yes, but not my name. My name is Akane, gaki**," it said. Naruto was silent for a second, trying to regain his sense of thought. "S-So... why are you here?" he asked. The Kyuubi rolled its eyes and pointed at the paper on the gates. "**I'm here because your genius of a father decided to seal me into your guts. Why he couldn't just stick back into Kushina-chan, I have no idea. If I was going to be sealed into **_**anybody**_** I wouldn't have minded if it were her**," it said, siting back on its haunches.

Both of their minds were goin a mile a minute, unknowingly having the same though process. So his was the massive beast that had attacked Konoha six years ago. But Kushina had told them that the Kyuubi was being controlled by a man in a mask. And that the Bijuu was actually not half bad. A little tactless and abrasive, but fine. Taking a deep breath to clam herself, Natsumi said "Okay, so why are we here as well?" At that a flash of anger came over the Kyuubi's eyes, and it snarled. "**One moment**," it said, before suddenly there was a blinding flash of red light, blinding the twins. When it faded Naruto looked at where the fox had been. But nothing was there. "What? Kyu- Akane?" he said, using the Bijuu's real name.

"**Down here, fools**," they heard a voice say. But this one sounded much more human. Looking down, they could see an adult woman standing where the beast had been. She was about five-foot-seven, and her blazing red hair reached the middle of her back in a spiky pattern (Karui's hairstyle, only longer). Her features were meant for a seductress, with full cherry red lips, soft glowing skin and a heart shaped face. The rest of her body also fit the bill, with curves all in the right places and rather... "developed"... chest, which made Naruto blush. She was wearing a formal red kimono that reached her ankles tied with a black obi and designs of small foxes all over it, with the kanji for "nine" right over her heart. Her feet were bare however, and she also possessed clawed nail, canines long enough that the tips rest against her lower lip, whisker marks just like their. The red eyes were also the same, and she had a pair of red fox ears resting against the top of hr head with nine tail waving behind her, coming from the small of her back.

The two twins stared at the woman before her, who let out a chuckle in a sultry voice, like dark velvet. "Surprised? Your mother was as well, the first timed I showed her my human form," Akane said. Both twins blinked, before Naruto "W-Wait a minute! You're a girl?!" Akane frowned. "Yes, I am. Why?Do you not think women can have great power?" she said, that second part said in a over-sweet tone they recognized from their mother. It was the tone that promised pain if given the wrong answer. Naruto gulped and quickly shook his head. "Good. Now, back to what I was going to say. After you were attacked by those 'people' I tried to pull you in here immediately so you wouldn't have to feel the pain they were going to inflict upon you. Unfortunately, your fear was so great that you didn't even feel my presence, rendering my attempts worthless. Now, a change of plans is in order," Akane said grimly.

Natsumi blinked. "A change in plans?" she asked. The Kyuubi nodded. "Exactly. Since I see that just saving you from the pain of the beatings is futile, I'm instead going to make sure that it never happens again," she declared. Naruto was silent, thinking. "Um, that's great but, how exactly is it that you plan on doing that?" he questioned. Akane sighed. "You are both, what, six years of age now?" she asked, and they both nodded. "Then Kushina-chan will no doubt be starting your ninja training soon; she and I discussed it often. So, while Kushina is teaching you the arts of a ninja, _I'll_ be training you in your mindscape as to control my power," the great fox said. Again, both of their eyes grew huge at that.

"We-We're going to learn how to use your power?!" Naruto asked, excited. Akane smirked and nodded. "The good news is that despite being split in half, my youki has been able to regenerate one tail within each of you per year, so you both have a full set of nine. That being said, you'll only be able to use the half of me that's sealed within you - the Yin and Yang halves respectively, that is," she explained. Naruto was grinning like a madman, thinking of how strong he could be. With that kind of power, he could protect his precious people forever, dattebayo! Natsumi's thoughts were similar, though not as energetic. "So, since we each have a a separate part of your chakra, will we be able to use the Yin and Yang Releases?" she asked.

Akane's smirk grew wider. "You catch on fast. Yes, you will be able to use the Yin Release, Natsumi, which will also make you excellent at genjutsu, while _you_, Naruto, will be great at taijutsu due to being able to control the Yang Release. I'll also awaken the bloodlines you possess," she stated. Naruto's eyes again threatened to pop out of his head, and he threw a fist in the air. "YOSH! This is going to be totally awesome, dattebayo!" he yelled. But then he rubbed his head. "So... what are our bloodlines?" he asked, rubbing his head in embarrassment. Akane chuckled at the young blonde's enthusiasm.

"Well, you both have Uchiha blood in you from your mother's side, so first there will be the Sharingan. Then I'll boost your regenerative capabilities. You won't survive decapitation, but few other things will kill you. And then there's your Uzumaki bloodline, the _Reikon Karada_," she said. It was then that Akane before remembering something, and stopped Naruto before he began bouncing off the walls. "Oh, there is one more thing. In repayment for letting you use my power and teaching you how, I want something in return," she told them. Naruto nodded. "Sure! Whatever you want!" he said. Natsumi nodded as well. "What is it?" she asked.

Akane, gestured at hand at the seal. "I need you to grasp that seal and rip a third of it off. That will give me enough freedom to see outside of your mindscape, as well as change how things look in here. I'll be able to have some creature comforts, and enjoy the outside world. Being stuck in a cell for six years is by no means pleasant," she said, grimacing. "Okay, we can do that!" Naruto said, reaching for the seal. Sadly, it was too high, and thus Natsumi was forced to stand on his shoulders. The balance was wobbly, but Natsumi managed to grasp the tag and carefully rip off a third of the appear. Immediately there was a explosion of youki around them from the red pipes, filling the air with red. Both Naruto and Natsumi were sent flying, hitting their heads on the ground. Darkness began to surround them, and as heir sight faded Akane waved from behind her cage.

"Have fun in the morning, kits," she said.

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><p><em><strong>Deiru's Mindscape, at the same time<strong>_

The moment Deiru fell asleep he appeared in his mindscape, a bamboo forest where the sky was filed with stars in a perpetual night. The moon was blood-red and covered the place in an unearthly light. Undisturbed, Deiru walked forward, weaving through the trees without even taking off his blindfold. The farther he walked the more the sound of waves reached his ears, until eventually the forest ended near cliff-side, wear small Japanese palace stood. The roofs were made with dark green tile while the stone and wood was red. On the set of double-doors near the front was the Otsutsuki crest painted in black and white.(see story picture). Upon Deiru's approach they swung open, revealing that he halls were littered with sakura petals from he trees surrounding the castle.

Once Deiru reached the throne room he stopped and dropped to one knee, bowing his head before the figure seated in front of him, the castle's only other occupant. "Kaa-sama," he said.

Kaguya smiled down at her son, rising from her throne. The castle was actually one of Kaguya's creation, modeled after the castle the entire Otsutsuki clan had lived in prior to her rampage. Once Deiru had given her full control over his mindscape she had created it and also filled the forest with wildlife- mostly rabbits. It had been in this castle that she had met her son in the flesh two years ago, rather than just seeing him through the wolf body she possessed. Overall, she could say that she was very proud of her son. He was highly intelligent, loved to learn new things, especially anything related to jutsu (hint hint) and loved his mother very deeply. She had told him of her ideals and desire for peace, but had constantly warned her son to not take her views simply because they were hers. Kaguya told him that he was supposed to form his own opinions on things.

Her warning seemed to have little effect though. Even if Kaguya hadn't encouraged her son to take up hew ideals, the hatred from the villagers did that for her. What many people did not know was that the anger from the villagers of Konoha was just as high before as it had been now. The only reason they failed to take it out on Naruto and Natsumi was simply because they were out of their reach. And since Deiru was always by her side, many people saw him as a demon as well. Why else would he be taken care by such a large and dangerous animal. Triple the anger... triple the abuse... triple the beatings...And being only a child than, it was just a matter of time before he broke.

Now Deiru shared the same desire for peace as Kaguya herself. Though rather than subjugate the entire world to the Infinite Tsukuyomi- Deiru reckoned it was useless to rule over a world full of sleeping people- he was determined to fulfill their shared dream for eternal peace through another method.

That method was simply uniting the Elemental Nations under one banner.

Such a thing might sound impossible, but it didn't necessarily have to be done with force. Lies, persuasion and subterfuge were just as dangerous as any jutsu. It would take time, a lot of time, but by working from the shadows, Deiru could grow and bring the Elemental Nations together, dissolving borders and opposing governments until everyone was on the same side. Well, not the same side, but they would know the consequences of being enemies. A wise man once said "The pen is mightier than the sword." Sadly, Deiru could not even begin the steps needed to accomplish such a goal until he became a ninja, which meant that he needed to stay in Konoha. However, that didn't mean he couldn't begin getting things done. And should things fall apart... well, there was always Project Tsuki no Me still going strong.

"You desired my presence, Kaa-sama?" Deiru asked, staying on one knee with his head bowed. Kaguya smiled wider. '_Such a respectful boy... I raised him right_,' she thought. "Yes, I did, sochi. I came here to tell that you were very brave, saving those children from that mob. And you performed you first kill. Are you alright?" she asked.

Deiru nodded. "Yes, Kaa-sama. You prepared me for that moment already. It was simply the matter of doing it," he said. Kaguya nodded. "Very true. Now, I brought you here to discuss something very important. As I told you, your formal training will begin tomorrow. However, since I cannot reveal myself yet outside my of wolf form, I will have to awaken you bloodlines here and now," she said. At that he gasped, and although it couldn't be seen, Deiru's eyes widened in excitement. "Really?" he asked, and smiled hugely. "Thank you, Kaa-sama!" he said, bowing his head further even as he smiled. Kaguya chuckled. "There's no need to bow to me, Deiru," she said. At that he nodded, and stood. "So, what bloodlines do I have?" he asked.

Kaguya chuckled. "Well, not long after you were born I changed your genetic structure, erasing whatever DNA you possessed that belonged to your biological mother's and replaced it with my own, making _me_ your mother in ever sense of the word. That also means you've inherited my abilities. However, right now your body can only handle three bloodlines- one for your body, one for your chakra, and one dojutsu. I sensed that those two children that you saved possessed the blood of an Uchiha, so I suspect that they will awaken the Sharingan," she explained. Deiru raised an eyebrow. "Is that the dojutsu you will give me?" he asked.

The head of the Otsutsuki clan shook her head. "No, instead I shall be giving a different dojutsu, one that I personally utilize: the Byakugan. To go with it I will awaken within you the same body-based bloodline I possess- the Shikotsumyaku," she told him. Deiru didn't say anything, his mind already racing. The powers of the Byakugan were truly incredible, and when they were combined with the fighting capabilities of the Dead Bone Pulse... Deiru blinked. "What about the third bloodline, the chakra-based one?" he asked. Kaguya frowned. "That one you have not actually inherited from me. Your third bloodline will be an affinity for what is called the Dokuton, or 'Poison Release'. That bloodline came your genetic father- whoever he is," Kaguya told him.

At that Deiru's expression changed from happy to aggravated. He knew that Kaguya was the one who birthed him, even if he changed his genetic structure later on. She had told him when he first met in her in his mindscape, but in truth that knowledge that his genetic parents abandoned him only increased his desire to see his and Kaguya's dream come true. That way, no child would have to be left behind again. All the same, he kept control of his emotions, and nodded. "Thank you, Kaa-sama," he said, smiling up at his mother. Kaguya simply dropped to one knee as well and enveloped her son in hug. Deiru stiffened at that, before smiling and wrapping his arms around his mother. "Kaa-sama..." he said, laying his head against her shoulder.

Kaguya smiled. Even if she hated Hagoromo and Hamura, she had developed a soft spot for her third son, and found herself acting like a real mother round him. It wasn't so bad. She could feel Deiru's breathing even out as the six-year-old fell asleep, and stood. She carried her son through the halls of the castle to her bedroom, where she laid him down gently on the crisp sheets. She looked down lovingly at his sleeping form. Yes, Deiru was everything she ever wanted in a son. Loving, loyal, smart, desiring for peace, and possessing the potential for great power. Slowly she began channeling her chakra, and started by removing Deiru's blindfold and holding a hand over his closed eyes.

"Yes... you will be one to lead the Otsutsuki name to greatness, my sochi," she muttered.

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><p><strong>The next morning...<strong>

Naruto's nose twitched as a odor reached his nostrils. An odor that smelled like it came from heaven above, one that quickly awoke him from his sleep. An odor that smelled like ramen. "RAMEN!" he yelled, snapping awake and jumping out of bed. However, he didn't Immediately go running out the door. If he smelled ramen, then that must mean that his Kaa-chan had made some. And if it was Kaa-chan, she would hold that ramen from him unless he washed up! Quickly Naruto ran into the bathroom and took a shower, brushing his teeth once he finished. Since today was the day of his ninja training, he wore long-sleeves mesh armor over an orange t-shirt with a red Uzumaki swirl on the back, blue shinobi pant and sandals, with orange tape wrapped around his forearms.

Once he was dressed Naruto literally flew down the stairs and stopped in front of the dining room, seeing Natsumi already sat and was eating. She had her hair tied back in a long ponytail and wore w red sleeveless shirt with the same mesh armor as him, while the pants and sandals were black and she had red tape wrapped around just her wrists and ankles. Kushina wore her standard ANBU attire, though without her sword or the mask. "Good morning, Naruto-kun," she said, placing a bowl on steaming hot ramen on the table. "Morning, Kaa-chan! Thanks!" he said, and quickly sat down to eat. "Has that boy Deiru woken up?" she asked.

"No, not yet. Or at least, I didn't see him," he said. Kushina frowned, but then they heard the sound of someone walking down the steps and saw that it was indeed Deiru, who was yawning with Kaguya by his side in wolf form. "Morning, Deiru! Thank for saving us!" Naruto said. He blinked and stopped mid-yawn, before smiling. "It was no problem, Naruto. I was glad to help. Now, however, I must leave," he said, bowing. Natsumi grinned. "I'll bet. Your parents must be worried sick after you vanished from home last night," she said. Deiru's smile faded at that, and he looked away. "I... don't have any parents. I have my Kaa-sama, but my birth parents are gone," he admitted. All three Uzumaki's gasped at that, with Natsumi's expression turning guilty. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" she began, but then Deiru held up his hand.

"It's alright. There's no way you could have known. Either way, I'll be going now," he said. With that Deiru turned and began walking for the door. But he hadn't made it three steps before Kushina said "Wait! If you have no parents, then who looks after you?" she asked. Deiru looked back and shrugged. "I do," he replied simply. Kushina's expression hardened at that. "Okay, that does it. You just wait right here, Deiru. I'm having a talk with Hiruzen," she said. Deiru's eyes widened, but before he could protest she was already gone via shunshin. Deiru groaned, and simply conceded defeat before trudging over to the table and sitting. "There's really no need for this," he muttered. Naruto grinned. "Relax! Kaa-chan will get Jiji to have someone take care of you. Who knows? You may get to stay here, with us!" he encouraged.

Deiru looked at him in surprise, before smiling. "Yeah... you're right. Thanks, Naruto," he said. Kaguya grinned, lying down on the couch in the living room. Looks like her son was managing to make some friends. The twins ate and talked with Deiru and each other, trying to learn more about him. They learned that his favorite food was eggs, while he hated eating anything cold. With the twin's permission he hard-boiled himself several, and salted them before eating. Deiru also told them his favorite hobby was reading scrolls on jutsu or tending to wild animals. A couple of hours passed in this fashion, until it was actually noon. Before they could get anything else out of him though, Kushina reappeared with Sarutobi by her side.

"Jiji!" Naruto called, and ran towards the old man to hug him. Natsumi did as well, though she walked rather than ran. The ex-Hokage chuckled and ran a hand through each of their hair. "It's good to see you both. You're looking well, especially after last night," he said. They both separated from him, and Natsumi nodded. "Yes, we're a lot better. We were just talking to Deiru," she said. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow and looked up to see Deiru standing there, bowing formally. "Hokage-sama," he said. The old man chuckled. "I thank you for the respect, but there's no need," he said. At that Deiru's eyebrow twitched. What was it with people disregarding he respect he hands out? Nonetheless he ignored it, and stood straight.

"I have been informed that you live on your own, and Kushina demanded that I find someone to become your legal guardian. Since there was no one on hand at the moment, I have come to a decision, one that Kushina agrees with," Sarutobi said. Deiru raised an eyebrow. "I see. And?" he asked. Hiruzen grinned. "It has been decided that you will live here, at the Uzumaki-Namikaze complex," he announced. Deiru gasped quietly at that, whipping his head towards Kushina.

The redhead smiled. "Yeah, you heard him right. If no one else is going to raise you, then I will!" she said determinedly. Kaguya nearly growled. She _had_ raised her son. But she remained silent, and listened as Naruto and Natsumi both cheered and hugged Deiru and their mother at the same time, glad that he was staying with them. Sarutobi grinned; looks like he made the right choice. If things were done this way, then not only would he receive proper care from someone he knew he trusted, but he had assigned a jonin to be his tutor as well. Now it was just a matter of keeping the child's bloodline away from the councils' ears for as long as possible.

"So Deiru, now that you're staying with us, you can keep the guest room you slept him," Kushina told him. Deiru nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Kushina-san," he said. That was when her grin turned sadistic. "Oh, don't thank me just yet. If you're living with us, you're going to be training with us as well. You've got a tutor that will help," she said, her smile promising nothing good. Deiru actually gulped at that. "So... who's going to be my proctor then?" he asked.

It was then that the kitchen window suddenly exploded, a black ball of cloth coming through it. A pair of kunai stuck the corner of the cloth to the wall, causing it to unfurl in front of Kushina. From the center of the bundle a young woman of about eighteen appeared, landing on her feet. "Lo and behold! The sexy and single Anko Mitarashi is here!" she yelled. Everyone sweat-dropped at that, even Kaguya, and they all looked at the woman. Her purple hair was held back to where it was styled like a pineapple. Currently she was wearing a tan overcoat with purple in-seam, w mesh body suit that stretched from her neck to her thighs, an orange mini-skirt with pale gray skin-guards and ark sandals, a snake's fang on a thick cord around her neck... and that was it.

Both Naruto and Natsumi blushed at her lack of covering, while Sarutobi sighed. "Never changes..." he muttered. Kushina emerged from behind the cloth with an eyebrow twitching. "Anko... what did I tell you about breaking my windows?" she demanded quietly. Seeing the danger, Anko gulped and scratched her ear. "Um... right. Sorry, Kushina-sensei. Won't happen again," she said. Kushina sighed and turned to Deiru. "Deiru, this is woman is going to be your instructor, as well as my former genin student, Anko Mitarashi," she told him. Deiru nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Anko-sensei," he said, extending a hand. Anko shook it and grinned sadistically. "So, you're the little brat I get to teach, huh? Alright, follow me!" she said, turning and leaping back out the window.

Deiru hesitated, and looked over at Hiruzen and Kushina. Kushina sighed. "You may want to hurry up. Anko's not exactly the patient type," she said. Deiru stared, before groaning something similar to "Why me...?" before climbing out the window. Kaguya stared. What the hell kind of woman was this? Still, she stood and leaped out as well, following in case this crazy woman did something to her son.

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><p><strong>Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It was mainly to set things up for Deiru, Naruto, Natsumi's days of the Academy, as well as show you what abilities they'll be capable of. <strong>

**Also, here is the description of the Uzumaki bloodline, the **_**Reikon Karada**_**:**

**Meaning "Spirit Body", the Reikon Karada is the source of the Uzumaki clan's large chakra reserves, as well as their longevity. Wielders of this bloodline, due to have a large amount of spiritual energy, possess an affinity for no particular element, enabling them to achieve equal prowess in any element they train, including sub-elements (though those require teaching from somebody already knowledgeable in them). Select members of the clan with a powerful enough spirit are also able to manifest weapons based off of their spirits known as Zanpaktou (Yes, the ones from Bleach) and use said weapons in combat.**

**So, if there is a particular sub-element you want either Naruto or Natsumi to receive instruction in, say it now. I already know which Zanpaktou Naruto and Natsumi will receive. Last, the first spot in either harem has been decided! Naruto will indeed be paired with a Fem Haku, while Deiru will be paired with Anko. There are still a max of four more spots in either harem open, and I have removed the previous restrictions I placed. Choose from the list of characters now!**

**Kurenai**

**Hinata**

**Ino**

**Yugao**

**Sakura (will not be a fangirl)**

**Yakumo Kurama**

**Temari**

**Hana Inuzuka**

**Shizune**

**Fem. Kyuubi**

**As always, please review! If you flame me Liam Neeson will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you. (I'm just kidding... or am I?)**


	5. Chapter 4: The Training Begins

Author's Note: I do not own Naruto or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Hello to one and all! This is Deiru Tamashi, bring you yet another chapter of Wheel… of… Wait. WRONG! This is A Shift in Tides, and I have brought you the next part in this story, as well as replies to the latest reviews! <strong>

**The Dark Dragon Emperor: While I am not sure about Fuu or Tayuya, the subject of Hinata Yakumo will be answered at the end of the chapter.**

**Jack: Thank you for the kind words.**

**Guest: Really? Awesome. Question though: Which of my other stories have you read?**

**Ryuujin96: Don't worry, I don't plan on making Naruto, Natsumi or Deiru instantly powerful. They will become strong, yes, but they'll have to work for it. On the subject of sub-elements, I agree with the ones you states and will implement them. As for the harem, I'm sorry to say that Hinata will not be a part of it. As far as Hana, Yakumo and Shizune go though… we'll have to see.**

**And Withdranwnmadness000: I have been tinkering with the idea of pairing Natsumi with Deiru, but am unsure. What do you think I should do? As for Hana, I'll take your opinion into consideration.**

**And now, let it begin!**

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><p>Ch.4 The Training Begins<p>

Once Deiru was gone with Anko, Hiruzen also left via shunshin, and Kushina turned to Naruto and Natsumi. "Okay, you two. Since you're already dressed and done with breakfast, it's time to start your training," she said, grinning. Both of the twins gulped; they could have sworn they saw a picture of the Shikigami behind their mother when she said that. Despite their fear they cleaned their dishes and followed her outside, where they sat on the ground. The Uzumaki-Namikaze training ground was about the size of a regular football field, with a several trees next to a hot spring on one end and a row of wooden posts and straw dummy on the other. In the center was a white circle made for Taijutsu and Kenjutsu matches. Kushina turned to face Naruto and Natsumi once they were seated.

"Okay, starting now, we're going to be training the two of you for the next six years until you both become genin. You'll be enrolled in the Academy in a month as well, so you'll also be working on that as well. First, I'll need to explain to you your bloodlines, Anything before I start?" she asked. Both twins looked sheepish for a moment, until Naruto said "Um, Kaa-chan… we need to tell you something." Kushina raised an eyebrow. "Yes?" she responded. Naruto looked away. "Well, it's just that… when we were sleeping last night… we met the Kyuubi," he said, not finding any other way to say it. As expected Kushina gasped, though it wasn't in horror. Rather, it was in pleasant surprise. "You talked with Akane-chan?! How is she?"

'**Quite well, all things considered**,' they all suddenly heard a sultry voice say. All three Uzumaki gasped, and Kushina's face broke into a massive grin. "Akane-chan!" she exclaimed, before her expression became confused. "How are you talking to us?" she asked out loud. '**Well, I'm talking to those two because of the fact I'm stuck inside their guts. I **_**was**_** sealed inside of you, Kushina-chan, and that combined with the fact that you possess latent amounts of my chakra within you allows for me to speak in your mind as well. Which useful, as it allows me to speak to you directly**,' the fox said in their heads. Naruto grinned. "So what is it you want, Akane-sensei?" he asked. '**I figured that it would be best if I explained to Kushina-chan how I plan to help your training**,' she pointed out.

At that Kushina's grin grew wider. "You're going to help their training? How?" she asked. '**Well, the first thing I did was awaken their Sharingan while they were sleeping- the only thing they need to do now is learn from you on how to use. Second, I boosted their healing abilities. They won't be regenerating any lost limbs, but anything else should heal fine. Also, I've awakened their **_**Reikon Karada**_** for when you start training them in elemental abilities. The last thing I've done is also give Natsumi and Naruto the ability to use the Yin and Yang Releases respectively, so you'll want to give them good instruction in Tai and Genjutsu**,' Akane explained. By the time she was done Kushina's jaw was hanging near the ground from shock.

It only took a few seconds for her to pick it back up though, and she pumped her fist into the air. "That's wonderful! My children are go to be awesomely powerful, dattebane!" she shouted. It was easy to see who Naruto took after. Akan chuckled. '**I'm glad you're as enthused as your son. Now, if you'll excuse, I have some beauty sleep to catch up on**,' she told them all, before cutting off the mental link. After cheering for a few seconds, the redhead composed herself and she cleared her throat, causing Natsumi to giggle. "Okay, now that I know that, I won't be afraid to step up your training from what I had planned. Is that all?" she questioned.

They nodded, and Kushina pulled her sword from its sheath on her back. It looked like a regular katana in appearance, save for the fact that both the handle and blade were red. "First on the bloodlines, we have the Sharingan, which you can use due to having Uchiha blood in your veins, which you got from me. And before you ask, no, I have no idea who my ancestor was from the Uchiha. As it stands, I've managed to unlock the forbidden stage of the Sharingan, the Mangekyo Sharingan. Normally, you would have to kill your closest friend in order to unlock this stage of it," she started. At the twin's shared look of horror she pressed on before they could ask any questions. "_However_, the Mangekyo can technically be obtained by simply witnessing the death of someone close to you, which I did during the Third Shinobi War when I saw my comrades die in battle."

Naruto sighed in relief and Natsumi physically relaxed. Kushina as silent for a second as she closed her eyes. When they opened her eyes were in the form of her Mangekyo Sharingan, a nine-pointed fuma shuriken with an Uzumaki swirl in the center. Kushina continued "The use of such an advanced stage would eventually cause blindness from the strain of the techniques it allows one to use, but because of my Uzumaki healing I'm safe from that drawback. If you work hard enough, you might someday be the same.

"Now, for the bloodline you received from your Uzumaki heritage. The Uzumaki bloodline is called the _Reikon Karada_, or 'Spirit Body'. This bloodline allows us to possess abnormally large amounts of spiritual energy, which is the reason for our large chakra reserves and lifespan. The spiritual energy also keep us from having an affinity to one particular element, thus allowing us to obtain equal skill in any that we are taught," she explained. It was then that Natsumi raised her hand. "Kaa-chan? If we can have equal skill in any element, wouldn't that also mean that we would be able to the other elements, like ice and lava?" she asked.

Kushina's smile widened. "You could learn to use sub-elements, yes, musume. However, to receive any instruction in those you have to be taught by someone who already knows them, or a genius at chakra manipulation on the level of Mito baa-chan, which I doubt will happen. The _Reikon Karada_ is also capable to allowing those with an especially large amount of energy to manifest that spiritual power in the form of a weapon. These weapons are called Zanpaktou, and the shape they take in unique to each spirit. If the two of you have strong enough spirits and end up in a life-or-death situation, then you'll be able to obtain your own as well," she said, holding up her katana.

"I myself did obtain my own Zanpaktou, the Aka no Shi, or 'Red Death'. It was this sword that gave me that same name in battle. Each Zanpaktou initially appears as katana, but it also has two other forms. The first one is its Shikai, or 'First Release' and the other one is Bankai, or 'Final Release'. I've unlocked both of those, but for now I'll only show you my sword Shikai form," she stated. Both twins leaned forward in anticipation, and Kushina pricked her thumb with the tip of her sword before running it alone the flat of the blade, smearing it with her blood.

"**Release the seven sins, Aka no Shi!**" Kushina called. Her blade red before seemingly absorbing the blood and releasing a burst of light. When it faded Kushina was holding a four foot long yanmaodoa blade with a serrated edge, still the same red color. Turning towards one of the straw dummies, Kushina gripped her blade tighter and it began glowing. "And now… **Sin of Wrath: Decimation!**" She swung her blade and a wave of dark red energy flew forward, hitting the dummy and exploding, simultaneously releasing an aura that the attack itself was angry. When the dust from the explosion settled the dummy was no longer even there, merely a circle of ash around the explosion sight. Naruto and Natsumi both gaped at the attack, while Kushina snickered. Aka no Si returned to its katana form and she sheathed it.

"That was one of my sword's Shikai abilities. It actually has seven, one for each sin. I won't be showing you its Bankai though. If it did, odds are you would be caught in the crossfire," she explained. Natsumi raised her hand. "Kaa-chan, do all Zanpaktou require blood, like yours?" she asked. Kushina shook her head. "No, not all of them. As far as I know, my Aka no Shi is the only one that does require blood to activate," she replied. Naruto's eyes had grown huge at the display. "Kaa-chan, that was completely awesome! I can't wait to learn it, dattebayo!" he yelled enthusiastically. The response he got was for Kushina to wack him on the side of the head with the flat of it, much to Natsumi's silent amusement. Kushina's expression was now set in stone.

"Naruto, I'm only going to say this once. While your energy is good, there is a time to fool around and a time to act serious. This is a time to act serious. If you act like your usual self in battle, the odds of you and your future teammates getting killed are that much greater. Do you understand me?" she said icily, no longer in the role of mother but instructor. Naruto nursed the part of his head that had been hit, already feeling a bump. "Yeah, I get it, Kaa-chan. But did you really have to hit me that- OW!" he said, getting cut off by another hit, this one on the other side. "You're not getting serious," Kushina stated. Naruto held his other hand to the new bruise, but said nothing. After a few seconds Kushina nodded and smiled.

"Well, that's the first lesson, and I'm glad you're starting to learn it. Now, because of your bloodline we won't need to be testing affinities, so we'll start on getting your physical strength up to snuff, and then we'll work on channeling and controlling your chakra. You can start with one hundred laps around the edge of the compound," she said. Even Natsumi gaped at that. "A hundred laps?! Kaa-chan, we're only six!" she protested. That earned her a hit to the head of her own, Kushina's eyes no shining in sadistic glee. "No excuses! Not only will you have Akane-chan healing you, but I plan to make you the strongest shinobi and kunoichi in existence, and I'll train you two into the dirt if that's make it takes. Now get in gear!" she said, releasing the smallest bit of KI for good measure. Naruto and Natsumi quickly stood and sped off faster than was thought possible, and Kushina laughed. Whoever said she was no longer the Red Hoot-Blooded Habanero anymore was dead wrong.

* * *

><p><em><strong>With Anko and Deiru<strong>_

"Come on, gaki! You're not getting any training done if you can't keep up!" Anko called, continuing her run atop the trees of the Forest of Death. Deiru and Kaguya were below her on the ground, panting as they tried to keep up. After following Deiru's new teacher from the clan compound she had lead them to the infamous Training Ground #44, and told that they were running the ten kilometers from the gates to her home at the tower in the center. Before Deiru had a chance to gape at the fact that he was being told to run almost six and half miles she had already taken off, yelling at him to keep up.

"**You know, I'm highly becoming suspicious that this woman is not entirely sane**," Kaguya said in Deiru's mind. Deiru nodded in agreement but said nothing, trying to keep the air in his lungs. By his guess they had already made it halfway through, and there was the serious chance that he wasn't going to finish the other half. The fact that he had various plants and massive animals to dodge and make through wasn't helping. After about another hour he had indeed made it, though he immediately collapsed to the ground from sheer exhaustion. Kaguya was fine; this wolf body she had possessed was capable of running such a distance throughout the day. Anko smirked. "You know, you could have just charged your legs with chakra and the strain would have been less," she said.

At that Deiru snapped his head up. "Why didn't… you say that… before?!" he tried to shout, but instead ended up panting.

"You ever asked," the purple-haired kunoichi replied simply. At that Deiru momentarily forgot about his exhaustion to let his jaw drop to the ground. After a few seconds, he picked it back up and hung his head. '_And I'm supposed to be smart…_' he thought. Anko chuckled at his misfortune, before pulling him to his feet. "Well, no use worrying about it now. I honestly expected you to give up after the first kilometer. You've got potential. Now, follow me inside," she said, turning around and walking inside the tower. Deiru grumbled and Kaguya chuckled, both of them following. Inside of the tower were the various rooms and training grounds used for the Chunin Exams, but Anko led them to top floor above them. The very top floor was actually composed of a training room, a living room, bathroom, dining room, kitchen and what looked like a… lab?

Anko stopped in the middle of the living room of what Deiru guessed to be her home. The walls were painted a dark green and patterned with styles of trees, while the carpet was brown and the furniture was composed of a tan couch, loveseat and television. Anko took off her trench coat and hung it on a hook, causing Deiru to avert his eyes at her now much more exposed figure, and led him to the training room. The training ground was rather similar to the one at the Uzumaki-Namikaze compound, only half as large, and there was an artificial pool of water and wooden posts rather than a hot spring and trees. Anko turned to Deiru, placing her hands on her hips. "Okay, before I start training you I need to know more about you. So tell me your full name, likes, dislikes, all that," she said.

Deiru nodded and sat down with his legs crossed. "Okay. My name is Deiru Otsutsuki, of the Otsutsuki Clan. My likes are Kaa-sama, studying jutsu, reading, and eggs. My dislikes are people who just a book by its cover, the majority of the village's civilians, and cold food. My hobbies are the same as my likes. My dream is to create an everlasting peace in the Elemental Nations… by any means necessary," he said. Anko raised an eyebrow at that last bit, while a flicker of memory surfaced within her. '_Strange… His likes and hobbies are almost the same as _his,' she thought, disturbed. The skin tone was the same as well, though she couldn't see his eyes because of that blindfold. And that was another thing… "How exactly did you make it through the forest without seeing what was in front of you?"

Deiru grinned. "Just because I'm not using my eyes, that doesn't mean I can't see," he said cryptically. In truth, he was able to operate without his eyes due to Kaguya enhancing his senses of hearing, smell, taste and touch. By combining his hearing and touch he was able to actually sense vibrations in the ground, giving him a detailed picture of everything in his surroundings… expect for anything that was in the air. That was when his smell and taste came in, as his taste allowing him to taste the scent of a person on the air, which was further enhanced by his smell. And anything that was in the air his "seismic sense" could find as long as there were sound waves for the objects to pounce off of.

Anko pouted at his lack of verbal answer and pulled out a piece of paper. "Alright, the first I'll need to do is test your chakra affinities. You know how to channel your chakra, right?" she asked. At his nod she handed him the paper. "Just channel it into this piece of chakra paper, and we'll see what they are," she instructed. Deiru nodded and held the piece of paper on front of him. Kaguya had taught him to not actually think of chakra as a force of energy inside of him, as he knew that chakra was a gift from the fruit of the Shinju tree. So instead he thought of it as a flowing stream that passed through him and, by now, every other human in the Elemental Nations, that was one day gathered from being mere fragments and come to together as a whole once more.

In short, there was no such thing as chakra "belonging" to someone. It was merely something given to them, to be channeled and directed. According to Kaguya, attempting to _force_ one's chakra to their whim was why it was so hard to obtain perfect chakra control in the first place. Attempting to simply guide it would increase the process exponentially.

When Deiru channeled his chakra into the paper it split into five pieces. The first piece burst into flames, the second one become soaked with water, the third crumbled to dust, the fourth piece became covered with wrinkles, and the final pieces dissolved into… was that acid? Anko gasped first five elements, and then again at the sixth, only that one was in horror. '_The Poison Release? It can't be! That bloodline comes from the Hebi Clan, and the old man told he was a Kaguya!'_ she mentally yelled. The Hebi Clan, the same clan that had spawned _him_. Deiru heard her breathing quicken and sniffed the air, the scent of horror reaching his nose. "Is something wrong, Anko-sensei?" he asked, concerned.

Anko shook her head. "You, um, said that you were an orphan, right?" she asked. Deiru raised an eyebrow. "I never did say that, but yes. I never knew either of my biological parents. Not that it matters, as I have Kaa-sama," he said, gesturing to Kaguya with his hand. Not even bothering to question why had called a massive wolf his mother, Anko nodded. Okay, so he didn't know who his parents were, and there was no mention of them in the medical file Sarutobi had gotten from the hospital. Just because he had the same likes and skin tone as Orochimaru, that didn't mean they were connected in any way other than having the same bloodline. If anything, this presented the chance to help the kid become better than her bastard of sensei. All she had to do was show him how that kind of path was the wrong one to walk.

At that Anko chuckled. No wonder Sarutobi had asked her to do this. He must have seen similarities in Deiru's and Orochimaru's bloodwork and figured that she could prevent a copy of the snake from appearing. "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. Though the fact that you have six elemental affinities is definitely unusual. Not in a bad way; this just will mean that your training will have to be more diverse when it comes to Ninjutsu and nature manipulation," she said. Deiru glanced at Kaguya from behind his blindfold. '_You hold something to do with that, didn't you, Kaa-sama?_' he thought. Kaguya merely grinned and remained silent. "Now, let's get to work. You already ran ten kilometers, so now I want a hundred push-ups in two minutes, followed by a hundred sit-ups in the same amount of time," Anko said, grinning at that last bit.

Deiru stared at her, before looking at Kaguya. '_Kaa-sama?_' he asked, hoping for an escape. Only for Kaguya to chuckle and walk off. '_Consider yourself lucky. I would have made you do a hundred push-ups in _one_ minute_,' she said mentally. Deiru stared for another second, before groaning and moving into position. Only one more thought passed through his head. '_This is going to be so troublesome_.'

Back inside the village, every male member of the Nara Clan all sneezed at once.

* * *

><p><strong>Time Skip: One week later<strong>

After the first week of training, Natsumi, Deiru and Naruto were all feeling pain with every movement they made. Both Kushina and Anko had been utter slave drivers, especially when the three of them were trained together and their shared sense of sadism fed off of each other. Both Naruto and Natsumi had already managed to activate their Sharingan with a single tomoe in each eye, and when Deiru wasn't training or adjusting to his home new home in the Uzumaki-Namikaze compound he had managed to awaken his Byakugan. The trick that Kaguya was trying to teach him was to activate with hand signs, exclamations, or even the appearance of the signature bulging veins. If this could be done, she told him, then due to the X-ray vision Deiru would be able to utilize the Byakugan with his opponent even knowing it since his eyes would be covered.

Deiru also remembered the Hyuuga clan having their entire Taijutsu style revolve around the Byakugan, and wondered if he would have the chance to steal a few basic scrolls once his skills in stealth improved. Combining the Gentle Fist with Poison Release could yield interesting results of he accomplished it. Kushina had also begun teaching Naruto and Natsumi her own Taijutsu style, the Uzumaki Kagami, or 'Spiral Mirror'. The style incorporated a flurry of unpredictable and random strikes in a spiral pattern, confusing opponents and overwhelming them until they left an opening in their defense. The 'mirror' section came from the fact that the style was even more effective when combined with the piercing sight of the Sharingan, though it was not necessary. That just made it twice as effective.

However, both Anko and Kushina decided that the best way to learn was spar and develop the style themselves. Which of course, meant that the Namikaze twins were left to spar against their mother. Over and over again. Anko was also teaching Deiru her Hebi-ken, or 'Snake Fist' taijutsu style, and as such half of his training had been on increasing his maneuvering and flexibility to actually _use_ the form.

Suffice to say, they were definitely feeling the pain now.

Naruto groaned as he lifted the chopsticks to eat his third bowl of ramen. Kushina had decided to take the three of them out to Ichiraku's as a reward for working so hard, something that even Deiru was grateful for. The fact that pork ramen wasn't half bad helped. From behind the counter Ayame giggled. "Oh come on, Naruto-kun. Your training couldn't have been _that_ bad, right?" she asked. All three children fixed her with a deadpan expression. "Yes, it was," they said as one. Ayame blinked, off-put the sight of all three answering in the same way. Kushina chuckled into her ramen and Anko snorted as she ate a stick of dango. Teuchi was also amused, but stayed silent. Natsumi ran a hand through her hair. She really hoped that she could take a shower once she got home.

"So, you three are training to be ninja, huh?" Teuchi asked as he set down to next bowl for everyone. Deiru merely had a set of pickled eggs. Naruto grinned and nodded. "You bet. I'm going to be one of the strongest shinobi ever, and then I'll become Uzumaki clan head, dattebayo!" he called. Anko grinned. "Clan head, huh? I figured a kid like you would want to be Hokage," Anko noted. Naruto's face scrunched up at that. "No way! I saw all that paperwork Jiji has to do. I am _never_ going to go for that! Besides, if I don't take up the Uzumaki clan seat, then who will?" he reasoned.

It was true. Ever since Naruto had been little and he had heard of how great a ninja his father had been, it had been his life's ambition to become clan head so that he could be a great ninja like Minato. Now that Naruto thought about it, he supposed that if both Kushina and Minato were gone then he might have gone after the Hokage seat, as in that case it would have been the way for him to gain acknowledgment. But with his Kaa-chan there, he had all the acknowledgment he'd need. Natsumi cleared her throat at that, looking over with her blue orbs expectantly. Naruto stopped ad blinked his purple ones, before laughing and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"You seem to be forgetting that I also want that seat, onii-chan," she said. Kushina chose that moment to intervene. "Well, whichever of you doesn't become head of the Uzumaki clan can become head of the Namikaze. Sound fair?" she proposed. Both of them stopped, considering that. Ayame weighed in "I think that does sound fair. That way you can both be clan heads, which is what you want." Naruto and Natsumi were silent thinking, before they both nodded and smiled. "I guess we can do that," Natsumi agreed. "Yeah! I can be Namikaze clan head and imouto-chan can be Uzumaki head, dattebayo!" Naruto said, turning back to his amen with a gusto. Deiru stayed silent during the while exchange. Besides bringing about eternal peace by unifying the Elemental Nations, it was also his dream to someday, many years from now, become strong enough in his mother's eyes that he would become the new head of the Otsutsuki Clan.

As if thinking about his mother had caused a twist of fate, Kaguya's head perked up suddenly, the ears of her wolf body twitching. Deiru raised an eyebrow. '_Something wrong, Kaa-sama?_' he asked mentally. Kaguya was silent for a moment, turning her head to the north before growling. '**I'm sensing the chakras of several Academy students in the park. They are filled with ill intent- which is what drew my attention- and they are clustered around another chakra signature that appear to be both sad and filled with fear. There's something more though. The individual filled with fear… they are a jinchuriki**,' she said. Deiru gasped at that, his eyes widening beneath his blindfold. '_Are you sure?_' he asked, and she nodded.

Making sure to act normally, Deiru rose from his seat. "Excuse me, Kushina-san? Is it alright if I take a walk in the park and return to the compound later?" he asked kindly. Blinking in surprise, Kushina considered the request and found nothing wrong with it. "I guess. But make sure to run not into any trouble, okay?" she said, to which he nodded. Anko grinned. "Just don't take too long, gaki, or I'll be pushing you twice as hard in training," she warned. Deiru gulped at that, before bowing. "U-Understood, Anko-sensei," he said, before running off with Kaguya next to him.

Once Deiru made it to the park he was able to easily find the group of bullies, seeing as they were right in the center. There were five of them, all boys about a year from graduating and one girl, and they were all pointing at the huddled form of a girl who was cowering against a tree. The closer he came near the easier he could hear their insults, which in turn caused his expression to twist in disgust and for Kaguya to growl.

"Freak!"

"Baby!"

"White-Eyes!"

That last one especially irritated Deiru, as Kaguya had white eyes. Looking between them he could see that their victim was a little girl with pale akin and dark blue hair cut in a hime style, and her eyes were actually lavender instead of white. It was also from this girl that Kaguya could sense the presence of a tailed beast, confirming that she was the jinchuriki. Currently she was whimpering, trying to both hold back her tears and curl into a ball at the same time. This only caused them to continue throwing insults at her. Deiru bared his teeth in snarl and turned to Kaguya. '_Kaa-sama?_' he asked. She nodded. '**You don't need to ask. Humiliate them**,' she said.

* * *

><p>As Hinata continued to try to make herself as small as possible, she reflected on how she ended up in this situation. It had started when she lost in a spar to her sister Hanabi… again. Despite being the Hyuuga clan heir and thus the one to be the jinchuriki of the Hachibi, she still couldn't stop herself from pulling her punches against her little sister. Not that anyone outside of the clan besides the Hokage knew that the Hyuuga clan possessed the Eight-Tails; that knowledge had been lost in history with the only record of it being kept in the Hyuuga archives or a documented announcement by the Shodaime that the clan was to be the Bijuu's "guardians". Each time a new clan heir was born the Hachibi was transferred to the new host while its chakra coils were still undeveloped.<p>

The previous container had been Hinata's mother, Hitomi Hyuuga. However, without stamina at an Uzumaki level she was doomed to eventually from the transfer to her newborn daughter, just barely managing to cling to life for a few more years and give life to Hanabi before passing away from childbirth. It made Hinata miserable to think that her mother died so that she could carry this burden, but it saddened her even more that her cold father and clan head Hiashi gave her no support, instead favoring her younger daughter due to her potential. After losing this latest spar, Hinata simply wanted to get away from the rest of the clan. Her father granted her request, and she had left for a while with her guardian, Ko.

However, when they were passing by a bakery on their way to the park, Hinata had been quick to pick up the smell of cinnamon buns. After begging Ko and nearly using the Puppy Eyes Jutsu, he had relented and told her to go on head to the park while he went inside. In hindsight, it would have been better to stay near her caretaker.

As the Academy students kept leveling insults on her she bowed her head, trying over and over again to block it all out. One of them, the girl, scoffed and said "Just look at her! She's supposed to be the clan heir, and she's _this_ weak? I'm disappointed." Hinata nearly broke into tears, the insult hitting far closer to home than the others. The other students began laughing at their companions comment, but then another voice suddenly appeared from behind them. "You know, it's a sad day when excuses for would-be ninja such as yourselves have to torture a little girl to feel better," it taunted.

All of them, Hinata included, looked to see a young boy with ash grey hair wearing a black short-sleeved shirt, flowing pants, sandals, mesh armor underneath the shirt and a blindfold over his eyes. All in all, he didn't look very intimidating to the Academy students, especially since he was the same age as Hinata. The leader of the bullies, an eleven-year old with a brown hair, eyes and average looks, snorted. "And who the heck are you?" he demanded. Deiru merely gazed at him stoically. "Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that you will _all_ get away from that girl, or suffer the consequences," he said. The girl, with purple hair and black eyes, laughed in derision. "A little shrimp like you beat us? We could take you down in two seconds flat," she said arrogantly.

Raising an eyebrow, Deiru merely replied "You must be far stronger than you look then, because it looks as if you would all lose against me." The leader glared at him, and yelled "I'm going to make you eat those words, brat!" He charged with his right fist cocked back, and Deiru could only shake his head at how easy it had been to rile these fools up. The acting lessons Kaguya had given him were barely needed. Not to mention the fact that a week of flexibility training was about to pay off… he hoped. Despite his training having begun, Deiru wasn't sure if he could fight five near-Genin and win. The leader came at him with a predictable right hook and Deiru simply ducked beneath him, bring him hand up for single uppercut that hit the Academy student on the chin, snapping his mouth shut and forcing him to bite his own tongue.

He was also sent a few steps back, and Deiru unleashed a massive kick to the groin that had the boy screaming soprano as he dropped to his knees, where Deiru kicked him again, this time in the temple. The leader fell to the ground, knocked out, and fell to the ground. The others paused, seeing their leader fall. Deiru saw his chance and released a large amount of Killing Intent, causing the four other bullies to freeze in place. Deiru gazed straight them, and they felt as if his gaze was burning through his blindfold and into their souls. "Leave," he said simply. As one they all nodded fearfully and took off, not even remembering their fallen leader. Deiru let them go, disgusted. These were the very types of people he hoped to eliminate in his and Kaguya's new world.

Kaguya emerged from her place behind the trees, smiling. '**You did well, sochi. You didn't even need to use your Byakugan**,' she said. Deiru rubbed the back of his head. '_Well, it helps that they were both cowards and arrogant. Had they been serious about fighting, I might have lost_,' he said humbly. Just one week of training wouldn't instantly make him powerful; it would be a long while before that happened. Deiru heard a gasp and turned to see the same girl as before still sitting there, only she was no longer terrified. Rather, she was staring at Kaguya's wolf form with a mixture of shock and intimidation from seeing such a large animal. Deiru was suddenly unsure of how to approach her. Helping scared people was outside of his norm.

Still, he resolved to try and walked over, kneeling in front of her. "Are you okay?" he asked. Hinata shyly nodded. "Y-Yes, I am. Um, th-th-thank you for s-saving me," she said, stuttering. Quirking a brow at the stutter, he said "Well, that's good. My name is Deiru Otsutsuki. What's yours?" Hinata blinked in surprise. She had never needed to tell someone her name before. Usually, they would be able to take one look at her and know. "I-It's Hinata. Hinata H-Hyuuga," she said. Deiru smiled. "Hinata, huh? That's a pretty name," he stated. The young girl blushed pink at that, unsure of what to say.

But then Deiru's expression turned serious, and he said "Hinata, can I ask you a question?" Momentarily surprised by the change in tone, Hinata slowly nodded. "I have sensory abilities, which allow me to detect a person's chakra and strength. I can sense that you have a lot of power, far more than enough to take down those bullies. So why didn't you?" he asked.

Hinata froze at that. She couldn't tell him about the Hachibi; her jinchuriki status was to be the utmost secret. And yet she knew that she was no good at lying, so what could she do? She looked up to see Deiru sitting there patiently, looking at her even with his eyes covered, that large wolf sitting right behind him. After a few more seconds, Hinata decided on something close to the truth, even if it was depressing. "… It's because I'm weak," she said, her sadness even overcoming her stutter. Deiru frowned. There were a lot of things he could guess about Hinata already. One, she was shy. That much was obvious. Two, if she reacted to as simple as compliment a being told her name was pretty, she must not have gotten such compliments often. But if there was one thing she was not, it was weak.

"Whoever told you that, they're lying," he said firmly. Hinata gasped ad looked up at him again, surprised. "W-What?" she asked. "I said that you're not weak. And it's not just because of my sensor abilities. I can… feel… that you have a strong heart. One that's even stronger than mine. Whichever person called weak is simply an idiot," Deiru told her. Hinata was silent thinking. Her father, all of the elders, her cousin Neji… were they wrong? Was she _not_ weak? But no… she had all the power of a Bijuu inside her. Power that she wasn't strong enough to wield. She was weak. With every thought, Hinata's heart went further into self-despair, until tears priced her eye again.

Before they could fall though Deiru, having smelt them, quickly said "And whatever thoughts you're having to bring yourself down, they're wrong as well. Just because some people don't care about you, that doesn't mean there are others that do." Hinata still tried to hold back her tears, simply asking "Who?" Deiru gazed at her stoically. "Well, there's always me," he said. Hinata blinked. "Huh?" she asked eloquently. Deiru smirked. "If no one else will care about you, than I will. I'll be there to help you up, as well as give you strength. How does that sound?" he proposed. Hinata could barely believe what she was hearing. This boy that had just saved from a bunch of bullies… wanted to be friends with her? Hinata quickly shook her head. "B-But… why would-would you want t-t-to be fr-friends with m-me? I-I'm nobody," she said, whispering that last part.

Hearing that last part, Deiru scowled. If he wasn't so weak right now, he'd find whoever managed to convince Hinata of that and kick their ass. Still, he couldn't let her keep telling herself that, so an idea came to him. Deiru pondered it for a moment before nodding, and asking "Hinata, can I show you something?" Seeing no reason to say no, Hinata nodded. Deiru reached up to his blindfold and slowly undid it, placing it in his pocket. Without a mental exclamation, he opened his eyes while simultaneously activating his Byakugan. Hinata gasped her loudest yet at the sight. He was a Hyuuga too? But, Deiru said his last name was Otsutsuki. "H-How?" she asked.

Deiru smiled. "My mother, she had the Byakuagn, and passed it down to me," he said. Hinata tilted her head, catching onto the past tense of the explanation. "Had?" she asked. Deiru shrugged. "Well, it's a long story. Suffice to say, I can never hug her in the flesh again," he said. It was technically true- the closest he could get to hugging Kaguya was in his mindscape. At least until either he or Zetsu found a way to revive her. Which reminded him, now that he was getting formal training in using his chakra, he would need to learn from Kaguya how to summon the immortal being soon.

Hinata became saddened at that, feeling sympathy. There was many a time when she wished that her mother could still be there to hug her, especially with how cold her father was. But at the same time, she couldn't help but feel happy. She had found another outcast. "You s-said t-that… you w-wanted to b-b-be friends?" she asked. Deiru nodded again, and Hinata smiled. "I… I would like that," she said. Deiru smiled as well, but before he could say anything, they both heard a voice call "Hinata-sama!" Hinata's eyes widened. "Ko!" she called, looking in the direction he could be heard from. She looked back at Deiru to see that he was already standing, walking away. Before he left though, he turned back and smiled. "So… here, tomorrow at noon?" he asked. Hinata blushed again and nodded, and Deiru left.

Ko chose that moment to burst onto the scene, looking around. "Hinata-sama, are you alright? I looked everywhere for you!" he called. Hinata nodded and slowly stood. "Y-Yes, I'm fine. Let's go b-back," she said, smiling. Surprised- he figured his charge would want to stay longer- but deciding not question it he nodded, and help up a paper bag. "I got us the cinnamon buns you begged for, by the way," he said. Hinata smiled even wider, calling "Thank you!" Ko chuckled and handed her the bag, and Hinata took one out and proceeded to dig in. As she was led back to the Hyuuga compound though, he couldn't help but look back at where Deiru had been, and ended up blushing all over again.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, I think you can guess that I've paired Hinata with Deiru. But before any of you NaruHina fans run me over, let explain. I did this because out of all the fanfiction I have read, Hinata (one of my favorite characters) has been paired with all of three people. Those three are Naruto (a pairing I agree with), Kiba (a pairing I do <strong>_**not**_** agree with) and Sasuke (which I will NEVER agree with). I did this so as to add an amount of diversity, and because I thought it would be interesting to see Hinata paired with someone new. So now, the harems currently stand as such:**

**Naruto/Fem Haku/Yakumo Kurama Deiru/Anko/Hinata**

**That leaves a max of three spots left in either harem, so here is the list of remaining women (to which I've added two people:**

**Mikoto Uchiha**

**Ayame**

**Kurenai**

**Ino (Not a fangirl)**

**Yugao**

**Sakura (Also not be a fangirl)**

**Temari**

**Hana Inuzuka**

**Shizune**

**And that is that. Please review! If you flame me Liam Neeson will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you. (I'm just kidding… or am I?)**


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